THE Special Investigating Unit (SIU) will finally probe the troubled Vaal University of Technology (VUT) over four years after independent assessors’ recommendation an investigation into the institution’s current and former officials and student leaders.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has authorised the corruption-busting unit to investigate allegations of maladministration in the procurement of services to refurbish student residences as well as campus security and protection-related services in 2018.
”The SIU investigation will examine whether the contracting of these goods and services was done in a manner that was not fair, competitive, transparent, equitable or cost-effective; or to applicable legislation manuals, guidelines, practice notes, circulars or instructions issued by the National Treasury and any related unauthorised, irregular or fruitless and wasteful expenditure incurred by the university or state or losses suffered,” the unit said this week.
The SIU probe will cover allegations of unlawful and improper conduct that occurred between January 2016 and this month including any related activities before 2016 and after the date of the proclamation, which is November 8, that are pertinent to the investigation or involves the same persons, entities or contracts.
In September 2019, then Higher Education and Training Minister Dr. Naledi Pandor appointed independent assessors, Prof. Barney Pityana and the late Prof. Rocky Ralebipi–Simela, who confirmed that leadership, governance and management at VU T were in such a state of collapse that it was necessary for the institution to be placed under administration.
By the time Pandor’s successor as Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande, released Pityana and Ralebipi–Simela’s 116-page report in early 2020; they had uncovered a web of malfeasance involving senior executives, other staff and former student leaders.
The independent assessors recommended that the administrator should request the SIU’s assistance to investigate activities of a number of university officials such as the vice-chancellor at the time and his deputies, everyone involved in supply chain management, infrastructure and logistics, as well as in student services, security and campus protection and former student leaders over a long period of time.
Pityana and Ralebipi–Simela also advised that the administrator must ensure that the criminal elements, if found to be guilty of wrongdoing, are charged and go to jail.
Their investigation also found that a contract in excess of R32 million for renovation of residences was undertaken on the back of a threat of a potential riot by students in the event that it was not pursued.
According to the report, this catapulted the VUT council to give a verbal approval and the executive management committee to give its approval without a proper and solid business case.
This led to poor drafting of bills of quantities to the suppliers to provide pricing and suppliers providing their own pricing, which would not be interrogated but taken as a valid reason for contracting and this was the basis for the budget.
Pityana and Ralebipi–Simela said the entire project was littered with financial irregularities, maladministration and pure collapse of governance at all levels.
”There have been wide scale and incomplete projects associated with the R32m renovation/restoration and value for money cannot be gleaned from the entire process … There was no evidence of a needs analysis exercise being done to determine the legitimate needs/requirements for VUT that led to the R32m contracts,” the report explained.
In the report, Pityana and Ralebipi–Simela also detail how the then vice-chancellor had a group led by former student leaders who called themselves his defence force, which once forcibly disrupted a council meeting they believed was called to discuss the former vice-chancellor and prepare grounds for his dismissal.
While the former vice-chancellor managed to persuade council his colleagues in the executive demanded justification for VUT paying for personal security for his safety and that of his family after he became convinced that his life was under threat amid claims of strange motor vehicles following him.
The man also faces accusations that he took office before the start of his tenure in June 2017 and for two months the university operated with two vice-chancellors after he demanded his letter of appointment as soon as council had resolved and then insisted that he was available to assume duty immediately.
He felt that he had made enemies at the institution by commissioning an investigation and that there were people out to harm him.
The independent assessors indicated that maladministration, governance, leadership and management have plagued this institution since VUT’s inception in 2004 and that the institution has experienced a series of governance problems relating to maladministration, allegations of corruption, unfair labour practices and abuse of power, among others, since its early days as a university of technology.
Both VUT and the higher education and training department failed to respond to the Sunday Independent.