Pretoria - A well known former student leader has opened a case against the Limpopo Health Department over an “irregular” and “overpriced” digitisation contract awarded to a Johannesburg based company in 2020.
The 5-year tender was awarded to Veritas Digital, which has branches across the country including Polokwane, to digitise patient files in public hospitals. The aim was to make it easier for health officials to ensure long-term accessibility of files from a centralised system.
The department said the new digital system would reduce lawsuits as a result of misplaced patient files and storage shortage challenges, and provide relief in accessibility of files.
It is widely reported that the department has spent well over R100 million so far to digitise the patient files.
The former student leader, who asked the Pretoria News not to publish his name for fear of victimisation, says he has taken the matter to the Hawks in Polokwane, and opened a case in July. He said the Hawks were now investigating the irregular appointment of Veritas Digital and fruitless expenditure by the department.
In an affidavit sent to the Hawks, and seen by the Pretoria News, the source claims that the contract awarded by Veritas Digital was not advertised and therefore irregular. He added that there was no transparency in the process.
The affidavit said: “In June 2022 I received information of corrupt activities at the department of health in Limpopo. There were payments to Veritas company every month. The service provided by the company was not advertised. The company was not issued with a tender.”
Even though the Pretoria News confirmed that the contract was advertised, the former student leader insisted it was done irregularly. Yesterday, the source claimed besides the contract being irregular it was also overpriced.
“A tender in terms of the laws of this country will be specific about what is needed and the costs, which is not the case with this one, hence a lot of money is wasted. We opened the case because this is clearly not in line with the prescripts.
“Investigations are progressing very well; soon the officers will be hold those involved to account for the corruption.”
The Hawks could not comment on the matter as yet. The department has refuted the allegations.
Department spokesperson Neil Shikwambana said there were no irregular payments. “The department has been for some time struggling with the storage of files and archives for all its facilities. Due to highly committed infrastructure, the department mostly relied on park homes for additional storage space and this was becoming unsustainable.
“There have been findings and reports generated by bodies such as the Human Rights Commission, and portfolio committee on health, on the need to address the state of filing and records management system.
“In seeking to address this challenge while complying with law on the handling of archives such as patient files, and medical and HR records, the department was compelled to translate all files and records from paper to digital.
“Through a transparent competitive bidding process, the department awarded this contract to Veritas Digital effective from mid-2020 for five years. So far, hundreds of millions of papers have been digitised and properly stored where they can be easily accessed. The department is satisfied with the work done so far.”
Veritas Digital CEO Glenvin Latchmanan confirmed his company was working with the department. “We have a contractual relationship with the
department. The services are paid as per work invoiced based on the rates set out in the letter of award. This was an advertised Public Tender to which we responded and were awarded the contract.”
Pretoria News