Treasury to probe chief procurement officer claims

Cape Town - National Treasury will institute a process to determine the truth or not of recent allegations made on SABC against its chief procurement officer Kenneth Brown by Mzwanele (Jimmy) Manyi and his Decolonisation Foundation.

In a statement issued late on Wednesday, Treasury said it will take "appropriate steps", but that such a process requires that those in possession of relevant information provide it. Therefore, Treasury has written to Manyi and his foundation as well as to the head of the Hawks to get the purported dossier that  Manyi claims supports these allegations.

Last week Manyi said during an SABC interview that his foundation has received a dossier which shows large sums of money had been deposited into the bank account of Treasury's chief procurement officer Kenneth Brown.

Manyi said he forwarded the dossier to the Hawks for investigation.

"If you have an officer of government that is involved with a procurement function  and you hear all kinds of monies are going into his account that exceed a million - and he is supposed to be a salaried person - the question is where do these deposits come from?" asked Manyi.

He added, however, that it could very well be all above board, but then again asked if these deposits could possibly be "from some of the people doing business with government".

"We don't know. We are not making any allegations. We are doing the responsible thing by handing the dossier to the responsible authority of the state," said Manyi.

Treasury said it views allegations made against the chief procurement officer - or any other officer - in a very serious light and is committed to act on any forms of impropriety.

"National Treasury hopes that Mr Manyi is raising this matter in good faith and in accordance with laws like The Protection of Personal Information Act. We also note that in reporting this matter to the law enforcement authorities, he at the same time saw it fit to go public with information that has not been tested and by doing so may be implicating an innocent person," said Treasury.

It added that it hopes this is not a deliberate attempt to "sow seeds of suspicion" on the integrity of Treasury, especially since the chief procurement officer "has a long standing record of serving the public service with great dedication".

"National Treasury, as an institution charged with the responsibility of overseeing public finances in the interest of our country, strives to do so with integrity, proper and sound governance at all levels," said Treasury.

"We are committed to act on any forms of impropriety at all levels within our ranks by taking preventive action against corruption and ensuring a clean procurement system in government."

This could include requiring senior executives in the National Treasury to subject themselves to independent processes of probity such as lifestyle audits, if necessary.

Treasury appealed to those making allegations against its officials to demonstrate that they too are free of ill motives "to advance their narrow interests at the expense of the public interest" and have no conflicts of interest related to procurement of goods and services from the public sector.

Public Protector

This was not the first time Manyi made allegations against Treasury. At the end of August Manyi asked the Public Protector's office to probe allegations of corruption involving the Treasury. He wants the investigation to go as far as the role Treasury played when, what Manyi claims Eskom procured Kusile for R100bn more than it should have.

Manyi has also called on the Public Protector to probe what he terms irregular state contracts awarded by Eskom and other parastatals.

Manyi also called on then finance minister Trevor Manuel to explain why prices were inflated during his term of office.

Manyi claims Treasury together with sacked finance minister Nhlanhla Nene and current Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan must account "for all the billions that have disappeared".

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In April this year The Sunday Times reported that when members of the Gupta family offered Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas the position of finance minister, some of their demands included getting rid of Treasury officials, including Brown, who was opposed to a proposed R1trn nuclear deal.

Since June 2015, Brown and his team have been probing tenders above R10m across government in their quest to ensure it gets value for money for its spending, reduces wastage, and clamps down on irregularities in procurement.

"Under Mr Brown’s leadership, the OCPO [office of the chief procurement officer] has made tremendous progress on these objectives to ensure that South Africa’s procurement system is one that is transparent and enables government to realise value-for-money, in line with section 217 of the Constitution," said Treasury at the time.

WATCH: Manyi's claims:

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