Find out what the SIU discovered about government tender scams

The SIU has discovered a trend in the manipulation of tenders. The splitting of government contracts to circumvent competitive tender processes is not an isolated procurement irregularity, but a common trend identified in investigations by the graft-busting Special Investigating Unit (SIU). The SIU confirmed that government departments and state entities frequently use requests for quotations (RFQs) for procurements below R500 000 to allegedly manipulate supply chain management processes and avoid open competitive tenders. “This is a common trend we have observed in our investigations,” SIU spokesperson Selby Makgotho said. Splitting of orders The practice was often accompanied by the splitting of orders. The admission comes against the backdrop of The Citizen’s revelations that auditor-general (AG) Tsakani Maluleke questioned R6.795 million in livestreaming and media services procured by the department of transport through seven separate RFQs. The Citizen exposed how each of the seven contracts was below the R1 million threshold that triggers an open competitive bidding process, with successful quotations ranging from R830 000to R997 050. According to the AG, the recurring nature of the services meant the department should have consolidated its requirements and followed an open competitive bidding process. The department has since rejected suggestions the contracts were deliberately split, arguing they related to separate events and campaigns with different scopes, deliverables, timing and technical requirements. But the SIU’s response suggests the procurement pattern identified by the AG warrants wider scrutiny. Tembisa hospital In an investigation into mas sive corruption at Tembisa Hospi tal, the SIU found officials deliberately kept transactions below the R500 000 threshold, enabling them to use the three-quotation system instead of more rigorous competitive tender processes. The SIU said the Tembisa investigation identified at least 15 current and former officials allegedly involved in corruption, money laundering, collusion and bid rig ging. It had prepared 116 disciplinary referrals against 13 officials at the time of its September 2025 update. The AG’s transport department audit found the department’s 2025-26 procurement plan had estimated broader media-related requirements at R9.34 million. It also found expenditure involving the identified suppliers of R5.964 million during 2025-26 and R7.311 million in the preceding financial year The AG recommended the department determine the full extent of irregular expenditure and consider consequence management for officials responsible for the splitting of procurement requirements. But how many other gover ment departments may be using technically separate RFQs to pro cure effectively recurring or related services? For investigators, one of the key challenges is distinguishing legitimate separate procurements from deliberate threshold avoidance. Patterns such as repeated purchases of similar goods or ser vices, transactions issued within short periods, the same suppliers repeatedly winning contracts and expenditure accumulating just below procurement thresholds can provide important red flags. The Tembisa Hospital probe showed how such vulnerabilities can be exploited on a much larger scale, with the SIU revealing that officials and suppliers used mul tiple transactions and other pro curement irregularities to facilitate a wider corruption network. The transport department maintained that its transactions were separate and that the broader media procurement require ment evolved over time. But the SIU’s latest warning puts the issue into a wider con text: staying below a procurement threshold may be lawful when transactions are genuinely separate, but deliberately structuring related requirements to remain below that threshold can under mine the competitive procure ment system. – [email protected]