CASE STUDY (20)

The following example of unethical behaviour is sourced (slightly shortened) from your prescribed textbook, p. 303: Department of Health Sarafina 2

In 1996, there was a clear example of how weak and irregular tendering can allow government to be exploited. The issue was a play called Sarafina, which the department intended to use to promote awareness about AIDS. Poor actions on the part of senior officials meant that unethical amounts of money were charged for staging the play. The People lost more than R10 million that was wasted on this project.

In this case, the contract was awarded to a company even though the departmental tender committee had reservations about the bid and considered only one other offer.

On the day the tender committee considered, but did not finalise, the award, the relevant chief director instructed an official to issue a cheque for R3 million to the successful company.

Although disciplinary action was taken against a few officials, millions of rands were never recovered.

Analyse the example above as follows, using only the information provided and not any information from other sources:

• Use the following three questions as your headings:

What are weak values?

What are weak systems?

What are weak consequences?

• Under each heading, first provide a brief answer, in principle, to the question. (You may use your study material for this. Do not discuss possible remedial actions.)
• Then, on the basis of the in-principle answers above, still under each heading, compare the information provided above with the in-principle answers to the three questions and your general theoretical knowledge in Public Sector Financial Management. In other words, what seems to have gone wrong in the Sarafina 2 case? (This may include stating that some aspects are unclear or subject to further detailed questions (which you may phrase) based on the limited information above.)

In your comparison, consider as background information what you have learnt in Public Sector Financial Management about, among other things, financial control and supply chain management.

Your comparison does not have to be very lengthy and can be relatively straightforward.

Stick to the basics. (Very lengthy and/or copy and paste answers will be penalised.)