Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) says it will freeze the pension benefits of Tembisa Provincial Tertiary Hospital officials who left the hospital during its investigation into supply chain management corruption.
This comes after the Gauteng health department announced this week that disciplinary action was being taken against officials after the SIU’s forensic report on its investigation was made public in December 2022.
Of the nine employees cited in the report, six were suspended from 10 July to enable disciplinary proceedings to get under way, and an investigator was appointed to deal with the matter further.
However, the supply chain deputy director retired, a chief physiotherapist resigned, and a sessional medical officer stopped working at the hospital.
The unit also motivated to further investigate supply chain management at the hospital.
“Once the proclamation is signed and gazetted, and the SIU investigation findings point to undue benefit, the SIU will pursue officials who resign in the face of an investigation or disciplinary action by freezing their pension benefits and institute civil litigation to recover financial losses suffered by state institutions.
“In addition to investigating corruption, maladministration and malpractice, the SIU also identifies systematic failures and recommends improving measures to prevent future losses,” SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said.
On Wednesday, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi revealed in an oral reply to questions from the DA at a legislature sitting that the officials were put on precautionary suspension.
The department said processes relating to the disciplinary cases of the suspended chief financial officer and CEO were under way and were being handled from the premier’s office.
Two officials have since been charged.
This comes nearly two years after the assassination of Gauteng health department whistleblower Babita Deokaran.
Deokaran was murdered in an apparent hit outside her children’s school after she flagged irregular payments and suspected tender fraud at the hospital.
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