Police rubbish claims it âblew R1.6bn in six monthsâ on irregular PPE procurements
By IOL Reporter
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Durban - The South African Police Service has rubbished a report that allegedly it âblew R1.6bnâ on irregular personal protective equipment (PPE) procurements in just six months of 2020.
The report was published in Daily Maverick and was based on an apparent confidential SAPS risk-based and compliance draft internal audit report.
National police spokesman, Brigadier Vish Naidoo said the internal audit report initially surfaced around October 2020 was âunsigned and untestedâ.
âThe said report has since surfaced on other platforms but we are not aware of any allegations or investigations ever resulting from this,â Naidoo said in a statement on Tuesday.
The DA calls on the Hawks to urgently brief Parliament on their investigation into the R1.6 billion the South African Police Service (SAPS) irregularly spent on procuring personal protective equipment (PPE) between March and August last year. An answer to an oral parliamentary question from the DA in August 2020 first revealed that SAPS had spent R1.4 billion on PPE procurement in the first few months of lockdown. The DA raised the alarm on what were blatantly over inflated prices on a number of PPE items. We revealed at the time that the SAPS spent a whopping R642 million, or nearly half of the total R1.4 billion, on 100 000 25 litre plastic sanitizer containers. Upon investigation by the DA, it was discovered that a 25 liter plastic container filled with sanitizer could be purchased for less than R2 000. SAPS had procured these containers at an inflated price of more than 3 000%.
The report points to a serious lack of management, stating that ‘the principal safeguard against fraud, misstatement and irregularities is an effective system of internal control’.