Zuma's girlfriend's tender flawed: IFP
2010-05-20 21:19
Durban - The awarding of a catering contract to a woman who has two children with President Jacob Zuma allegedly involved kickbacks, the IFP said on Thursday.
The Inkatha Freedom Party said it had come to its attention that the entire tender process was skewed in Nonkululeko Mhlongo's favour before it even began, and that at least one employee of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature received kickbacks through a family member.
Mhlongo's company was awarded the R1.3m tender for catering snacks and lunches at the legislature in the 2008/09 financial year.
Opposition parties complained it was not awarded on merit.
"Our latest findings go beyond the KwaZulu-Natal auditor general's ruling that this tender constituted irregular expenditure due to non-compliance with the 21-day period for review of bidding proposals, and failure to appear in the Government Gazette, as required by the Treasury regulations," said IFP member of the legislature Roman Liptak.
Proof
He said his party had acquired further proof the tender was not awarded on merit.
"The tender, which the KZN auditor general's annual report subsequently labelled as 'irregular expenditure', has since been renewed several times, incurring further cost to the taxpayer, and is still running today," Liptak said.
He said Mhlongo had submitted four parallel bids to the legislature, multiplying her chances of landing the catering contract.
The 53 bids, which legislature speaker Peggy Nkonyeni said were regular, included four variations on the name of Mhlongo's joint venture.
"This defeats the point of presenting competing options in a fair tender process, and it was only possible because the legislature employee in charge of the advertisement and compilation of bids was an indirect beneficiary of this tender."
Tender done on urgent basis
He said Mhlongo had been using R45 000 worth of kitchen appliances supplied by the legislature and the legislature premises, including water and electricity at no cost.
"Almost daily for several years, Mhlongo has been charging the legislature R60 per plate for breakfast and R166 per plate for lunch for up to 80 members of Parliament and numerous guests with subsidised overheads."
Mhlongo was not immediately available to comment.
The speaker's spokesperson Wonder Hlongwa said members of the legislature had put pressure on it to ensure there was proper catering.
“Addressing this issue on an urgent basis resulted in the legislature not advertising in the Government Gazette for a period of 21-days as per supply chain prescripts,” he said.
Hlongwa said the tender had been advertised widely in all newspapers and the process was fair and transparent.
He called on the IFP to provide proof that certain people received kickbacks.
- SAPA
