The South African parliamentary committee that investigates the illegal purchases of interferon alfa-2b from Cuba, as well as other drugs against covid-19, concludes, for the moment, that the Armed Forces were responsible for the act and paid at least one invoice to Havana. worth more than two million dollars.
From the meeting this Wednesday of the group, in charge of analyzing the more than 5,000 contracts that were made to more than 3,000 suppliers worth 14,300 million rands (almost 950 million dollars), it follows that the Cuban state company Tecnoimport issued to the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) invoices for three shipments.
The first of them, explained Cassius Lubisi, one of the members of the committee, was issued on April 30, 2020 for 130,000 bottles of the drug, for a total amount of 2,015,000 dollars.
“This invoice was misclassified as payment for vocational training services under Operation Thusano and was initially recorded as such on the Department of Defense books,” the South African official said. “This was later corrected on October 5, 2020 and correctly classified as medicines under Operation Notlela.” And he pointed out: “The head of logistics, Lieutenant General Jabu Mbuli, approved the payment of invoice S-0080 on June 30, 2020 after his intervention with the budget management office, on the same day.”
“The head of logistics, Lieutenant General Jabu Mbuli, approved the payment of invoice S-0080 on June 30, 2020 after his intervention with the budget management office, on the same day”
However, two other invoices corresponding to a second and third shipment were not paid: one, dated July 2, 2020 for an amount of 10.9 million dollars, and another, dated August 17 of the same year. , for 2 million dollars.
The committee also verified that the acquired interferon was returned to the Island, without specifying the date. The drug regulatory body (Sahpra) had warned in November that it should have been returned and, if not, be confiscated and destroyed, because it would have expired or was about to do so.
This Tuesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa had received an 86-page report prepared by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) which claimed that the South African Armed Forces were not responsible for the purchase of interferon alfa-2b from Cuba.
The document, prepared by lawyer Andy Mothibi, indicates that complaints were received against the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) linked to this matter on up to three occasions, all of them related to irregularities in the supply chain management processes. and possible collusion.
“The allegations were investigated and it was found that there was no irregular process and no award was given to these companies. It appears that false orders were created by an external consortium and invoices were generated for payment. The SANDF finance division was vigilant enough as not to make the payment of these bills and the State did not suffer any loss. These matters are now closed, “he determined.
The case was uncovered almost a year ago, when an investigation was opened into the purchase in 2020 of Cuban interferon valued at 17 million dollars for the military. According to the available documentation, the Armed Forces acquired the drug as a weapon fearing that covid-19 was a biological attack. This allowed purchases to be made through Defense and not Health. The drug regulatory body, Sahpra, had refused the use of interferon against the disease because it did not have data that would allow it to conclude that it was useful.
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