Treasury report backs Madonsela findings on IEC

Constitutional law expert Shadrack Gutto said the independent forensic report into the IEC tender - commissioned by the National Treasury and released on Tuesday - gave credence to findings in the 2013 report by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela. Following the release of Madonsela's report into her conduct last year - which included that she actively oversaw a procurement process after scrapping the initial one - Tlakula launched a scathing attack on the Public Protector. She accused her of 'gross procedural irregularities in the conduct of the investigation; errors of fact of law; abuse of power leading up to the compilation of the provisional report; and submissions on legal principles regarding conflicts of interest'. Madonsela had criticised Tlakula for not revealing her business interests before awarding the tender for the Centurion office to the property company Abland. Tlakula and ANC MP Thaba Mufamadi are co-directors in Lehotsa Holdings, and Mufamadi is also chair of Manaka Property Investments, the BEE partner and holder of a 20% stake in Abland. Full report in The Times

The report, compiled by PwC, makes uncomfortable reading for Tlakula, notes a Mail & Guardian Online report. '(Advocate) Tlakula, as the (then) chief electoral officer and accounting officer, Mr (Norman) Du Plessis as the deputy chief electoral officer corporate services and Mr (Stephen) Langtry as the manager in the office of the (chief electoral officer) should each be held responsible for the roles they played that resulted in a procurement process being followed that was not fair, equitable, transparent, competitive or cost effective,' reads the report's findings. The report slams the bidding process for numerous irregularities, saying it would not stand up in litigation that 'could arise by anyone of the unsuccessful bidders'. One of the report's findings is that Langtry, Tlakula's then manager in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, provided incorrect information to the bid committee. A report in The Star says the IEC altered the evaluation criteria for the lease contract to benefit a company that did not submit a tax clearance certificate before deadline. Its bid adjudication process, in which the contract was awarded to Abland, was riddled with errors. This prejudiced Khwela City, the company whose bid had met all the criteria. Full Mail & Guardian Online report Full report in The Star

The National Treasury report into the procurement process for the IEC's head office does not accuse her of corruption, Tlakula said yesterday (Wednesday). 'Contrary to media reports, the report does not make a finding of corruption or accrual of financial gain against me or any official of the commission,' she said, according to a report on the IoL site. Tlakula said: 'l reiterate that I have not been involved or found guilty of any criminal or corrupt activity. Thus, any reporting to that effect is without foundation and presumably calculated to impugn my integrity.' She did not want to respond to the report in full until Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who is the custodian of the report, had addressed issues that she had raised with him relating to the investigation. Full report on the IoL site

Business Day points out that Tlakula rejected Madonsela's report and has applied to the North Gauteng High Court to have it reviewed and set aside. She did not co-operate with the forensic investigation, citing the court action. Tlakula was the Chief Electoral Officer of the IEC when it concluded the lease agreement for about R1.6m with the owners of the Centurion office park, Abland properties. PwC said the IEC had initially awarded the contract for its new head office to Menlyn Office Park, but Tlakula stopped this process before formal confirmation could be made as she was not comfortable with procedures followed. 'Based on her concerns that were raised, she wanted the matter to be dealt with in an open process and all options be placed before the commissioners for consideration,' the report said. The commission then rescinded its earlier decision and published invitations for proposals in five newspapers on 27 February 2009 and 2 March 2009. Ten bidders responded to the advertisements and PwC said an examination of their tender documents showed they all bore a receipt stamp, but Abland's did not have one. PwC said it observed that in the proposal documents from Abland, which surfaced later with the receipt stamp, the signature of Abland's representative (Thinus Delport) was not original but appeared to have been scanned, or a copy pasted onto an electronic copy and then printed. Full Business Day report (subscription needed)

According to a report in The Citizen, it was found, among other things, that: The advertisement setting out the building and lease requirements was inadequate; there was no tender briefing and no detailed tender specification document issued; the normal bid evaluation process was not followed and the bid evaluation was done by the executive committee; the summary of the 10 bids prepared by and presented to the committee by the manager in the office of the CEO for evaluation, contained numerous errors; during an executive committee meeting on 19 June 2009, when the short-listed bidders made presentations, the bid evaluation criteria were changed, to the benefit of Abland, without the non short-listed bidders being afforded the same opportunity; the lease agreement was signed on 21 August 2009, by the CEO, even though the tax clearance certificates for two of the five members of the Abland consortium are dated after this. Full report in The Citizen Treasury report