SIU says at least 25 defence dept officials should face disciplinary action for illegal procurement of interferon during COVID
The SIU said the department of defence illegally used a cooperation agreement with Cuba to import interferon in 2020.
FILE: SIU head, Adv Andy Mothibi, appears before a parliamentary committee. Picture: @RSASIU/X
CAPE TOWN - The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) says at least 25 officials in the ministry of defence should face disciplinary action for the illegal procurement of a Cuban drug known as interferon during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The drug, which was meant to boost the immune systems of soldiers, is not registered for use in South Africa.
The SIU told Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) on Tuesday that it’s instituting legal proceedings to get back the more than R33 million the department paid for the first consignment of medicine, which it later returned to Cuba.
The SIU said the department of defence illegally used a cooperation agreement with Cuba to import interferon in 2020.
Its chief operating officer, Leonard Lekgetho, said there was also no budget for the R217 million it planned to spend on more than 930,000 vials of the drug.
"The department did not procure interferon from Cuba by means of a competitive bidding process, that’s the finding and the military command council exercised the power they did not have when they approved the procurement of the drugs."
The department returned the drugs to Cuba in 2022 and didn’t pay for the second and third consignments after the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) blew the whistle on its illegal use.
Only 15 vials were opened, ten used on a patient at One Military Hospital, and five for testing by SAHPRA.
"The interferon was found not to be fit for purpose by SAHPRA and as such, payments that the department of defence made to Cuba was fruitless and wasteful expenditure."
The SIU said that civil proceedings would commence to get back the R33 million spent on the first consignment of drugs and to set aside the agreement used to procure it.
The SIU said there's no indication of criminal intent, collusion or kickbacks by any of the department’s officials in the illegal procurement of the drug.