ActionSA welcomes the decision by the eThekwini Municipality to blacklist Madupha Business Enterprise, a supplier implicated by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in its investigation into the Phoenix Infill Housing Programme.
While this is a welcome and long-overdue step, it represents only the beginning of implementing the SIU’s recommendations. It should not have taken more than three years after the SIU submitted its final report to the Presidency, and nearly four years after the SIU first recommended that the Municipality request National Treasury to place the supplier on the Database of Restricted Suppliers.
This outcome follows sustained pressure by ActionSA at both national and municipal level. In recent weeks, ActionSA laid criminal charges against the eThekwini Municipal Manager for allegedly misleading Parliament regarding the implementation of the SIU’s findings. We have also submitted parliamentary questions to establish why suppliers recommended for blacklisting have continued to receive opportunities to do business with the state despite adverse SIU findings.
This development reinforces the urgent need for ActionSA’s Blacklist Corrupt Suppliers Bill, which will be introduced to Parliament in the coming weeks.
South Africa’s procurement system currently allows suppliers implicated in serious corruption and procurement misconduct to remain eligible for public contracts for years because there are no enforceable obligations requiring organs of state to act on SIU recommendations within defined timeframes, report on their decisions, or justify failures to initiate debarment proceedings.
ActionSA’s Bill will close these loopholes by strengthening the debarment framework in the Public Procurement Act through mandatory timeframes, enhanced oversight by the Public Procurement Office, greater transparency through a publicly maintained debarment register, annual reporting obligations, and by ensuring that SIU recommendations and Special Tribunal orders are properly integrated into the procurement debarment process.
Today’s announcement demonstrates precisely why these reforms are necessary. Justice delayed creates opportunities for further abuse of public funds.
ActionSA will continue to pursue accountability until every recommendation contained in the SIU’s report into the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality has been fully implemented and every individual and supplier implicated in wrongdoing has been dealt with in accordance with the law.
ActionSA Welcomes Blacklisting of SIU-Implicated Supplier Following Sustained Pressure
ActionSA welcomes the decision by the eThekwini Municipality to blacklist Madupha Business Enterprise, a supplier implicated by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in its investigation into the Phoenix Infill Housing Programme.
While this is a welcome and long-overdue step, it represents only the beginning of implementing the SIU’s recommendations. It should not have taken more than three years after the SIU submitted its final report to the Presidency, and nearly four years after the SIU first recommended that the Municipality request National Treasury to place the supplier on the Database of Restricted Suppliers.
This outcome follows sustained pressure by ActionSA at both national and municipal level. In recent weeks, ActionSA laid criminal charges against the eThekwini Municipal Manager for allegedly misleading Parliament regarding the implementation of the SIU’s findings. We have also submitted parliamentary questions to establish why suppliers recommended for blacklisting have continued to receive opportunities to do business with the state despite adverse SIU findings.
This development reinforces the urgent need for ActionSA’s Blacklist Corrupt Suppliers Bill, which will be introduced to Parliament in the coming weeks.
South Africa’s procurement system currently allows suppliers implicated in serious corruption and procurement misconduct to remain eligible for public contracts for years because there are no enforceable obligations requiring organs of state to act on SIU recommendations within defined timeframes, report on their decisions, or justify failures to initiate debarment proceedings.
ActionSA’s Bill will close these loopholes by strengthening the debarment framework in the Public Procurement Act through mandatory timeframes, enhanced oversight by the Public Procurement Office, greater transparency through a publicly maintained debarment register, annual reporting obligations, and by ensuring that SIU recommendations and Special Tribunal orders are properly integrated into the procurement debarment process.
Today’s announcement demonstrates precisely why these reforms are necessary. Justice delayed creates opportunities for further abuse of public funds.
ActionSA will continue to pursue accountability until every recommendation contained in the SIU’s report into the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality has been fully implemented and every individual and supplier implicated in wrongdoing has been dealt with in accordance with the law.