'No irregular payments from Prasa to Maziya'

THE Prasa Whistleblower matter has taken a different turn. NGO, Right to Justice, has taken a keen interest in the matter and has briefed Tendayi Attorneys in what is now a public bid of support for Maziya General Services and its CEO Chris Delpot.

Last week a whistleblower report stunned the country, alleging that two tenders awarded to Maziya General Services for a global system for mobile communications-railway redundancy network in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, and Western Cape were awarded unproceduraly. A very technically written report compiled by someone referring to themselves as a whistleblower alleges that almost R2.7 billion in advance payments were made to a company and about two tenders worth R17.4 billion were unproceduraly awarded.

The report says that unnamed senior Prasa officials were involved. But while the report makes damning allegations, the paper trail tells a different story. Right to Justice has written to Transport Minister Barbara Creecy, attaching evidence that Maziya was in competition with two “white” companies and after a series of consultations with the companies, who were in turn the bid losers, the report was compiled.

According to R2J, the whistleblower documents were compiled at the offices of the competition. The NGO has asked that global company Siemens be tested for the role it may have played in the exposè. “There were no irregular payments from Prasa to Maziya.

''The reference to the “black billionaire” is both racist and condescending, both because he is not a billionaire and after decades of hard work it would be expected that he, like others, is referred to as a respected businessman rather than simply a black billionaire” “MACRE JV and CRIG Maziya JV are registered with the CIPC, despite the malicious reporting by media, a simple check with the CIPC reveals that the organisations are indeed registered with the CIPC in the name of Chris Deport” the NGO said.

“These entities have completely different registration numbers to the tendering entities, which generally happens with large projects where the service providers are companies from the same stable.The entities do not have any contracts with Prasa, and no money has ever been paid to them.

'We are involved in this matter as an NGO because we recognize it as a racial issue. The media in South Africa was not as vibrant when the CEO of Steinhoff wiped out 600 billion from the South African economy. Delport fought for the tender to demolish Parliament, even though his competitors, two white companies, had quoted more than 200 million rand above his bid.

''Maziya is currently in court with Siemens. We’re concerned that this may be where this thing comes from” the NGO said.  “The companies were solely formed for local procurement because the unincorporated Joint Venture approval process was going to be too tedious, getting approval from China to pay local subcontractors. That is a common practice by big businesses in South Africa.

''That was solely a decision by the lead partner to open the entities but they were never used and the entities went into deregistration. Maziya did not get the bulk of the money.

“Several companies were paid. Understanding this, It is impossible to claim the amounts that are published in the media” the NGO said.  “The narrative in the whistleblower’s dossier consolidates all the payments as being linked to Maziya for work executed in PRASA. That is not correct! The payments were made for the recovery of the Gauteng corridors as well as the Western Cape Central.''The work was done on time. Maziya was involved in the recovery and maintenance of most PRASA corridors and successfully recovered and completed them, this is evident as trains are still running in those corridors.“

Maziya was appointed legally and procedurally. There is no evidence of anything unprocedural. The bid award went through Prasa's vigorous internal procurement processes, it is impossible to have skipped any processes. Maziya was subjected to: a) Bid Evaluation Committee(BEC); b) Board Adjudication Committee(BAC); c) Request for Proposals(RFP); d)Tender Process; Property Report; the board and the Executive. Any uncaptured journalist would apply themselves to thinking and questioning as opposed to rewriting a document by an unnamed source who is quoting unnamed executives” Right to Justice said.

The NGO stated this was a clear case of corporate racism, and they would fight in court to defend the 4 000 employees of Maziya.Prasa spokesperson Andiswa Makanda said the agency board is taking the whistleblower’s report seriously and will appoint an independent panel to probe the matter.  

“The Prasa board takes whistleblower’s allegations seriously and accordingly, in line with our whistleblower policy, the first step will be to appoint an independent investigation into the allegations,” Makanda said.The NGO said it would submit its dossier on how white companies have gotten the lion's share of Prasa tenders, and how the black companies folded when they went head to head to big business.  

The Star has sent questions to Maziya and Siemens.

This is a developing story.