Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Competition Commission has unearthed a third case of excessive pricing for personal protective equipment required by the SA Police Service during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to a statement from the commission, the SAPS lodged a complaint with the competition watchdog regarding 90 000 containers of hand sanitiser it ordered in March 2020, for which it was charged R4 700 each.
The commission said it had referred the matter to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution after it found that the supplier, Red Roses Africa applied a 236% markup on the 25-litre containers.
“The commission has found that Red Roses Africa (Pty) Ltd, previously registered as Mainstreet 669 (Pty) Ltd, charged excessive prices to the SAPS when responding to a request for a quote for the supply of bulk hand sanitisers in 25-litres,” the statement read.
The Tshwane-based supplier had responded to the SAPS’ request for quotes for the supply of bulk hand sanitiser in 25-litre containers.
“Hand sanitisers were required by SAPS to combat the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Red Roses was subsequently appointed and supplied SAPS with 90 000 25-litre containers of hand sanitisers at a price of R4 700 per 25-litre container with a gross markup of 236%,” it said.
The commission said that the pricing was excessive and did not correspond with the cost of providing the hand sanitiser.
“The excessive price was exploitative and directed at taking advantage of the SAPS at a time when PPEs (personal protective equipment) and particularly hand sanitisers, were in high demand,” commissioner Doris Tshepe said.
So far, two other public procurement cases involving the SAPS have been referred by the commission and have been successfully prosecuted.
One of them is a case of price gouging of face masks by the supplier Tsutsumani Business Enterprises. Tsutsumani was fined R3.4 million in administrative penalties by the tribunal. This decision is being reviewed by the Competition Appeal Court.
A third matter involving supplier BlueCollar Occupational Health and its partner Ateltico Investments, was found guilty of excessive hand sanitiser prices. The supplier was fined R3.5 million for overcharging the police for the supply of 10 000 of these 25-litre hand sanitiser containers.
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