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DRUGS PROBE: SA COMPANY’S QUESTIONABLE REGISTRATION

06/08/2023 16:18:00 Welcome Dlamini

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MBABANE – The Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg is looking into the registration of South African company Funduzi Forensic Services (PTY) LTD, which has been engaged by government to forensically investigate alleged irregularities into the procurement, acquisition and distribution of medicines to public health facilities.

However, the minister said, this should not derail the investigation because it is clear to everyone, as evidenced by the acute shortage of medicines in the country’s public health facilities despite hundreds of millions of Emalangeni being spent to buy the medication, that someone has to be held accountable. On Tuesday, the company’s directors, together with Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula, appeared before Cabinet to give an update on the ongoing investigation and some ministers reportedly raised issues on Funduzi.

prompted

This prompted the AG, later on the same day, to write a letter to the Finance minister to clarify ‘regarding the identity of an entity contracted by the Office of the Auditor General’. Matsebula informed Minister Rijkenberg that his (auditor general’s) office had contracted a South African company operating as Funduzi Forensic Services, with the registration number 2017/3907/67/07, which he said tendered through its local extension registered company with ID: 202210101025631. Investigations by the Times SUNDAY show that, also on this same day, there was an application that was made to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) in South Africa seeking to amend the memorandum of incorporation of another company called DW Wealth Consultants (PTY) LTD. This application, which was granted, was for the company to be changed to DW Wealth Consultants Funduzi Forensic Services in its name.

On Wednesday, Minister of Finance Rijkenberg was shown a disclosure certificate, purportedly issued by the CIPC on Tuesday August 1, 2023 at 1:44pm, of DW Wealth Consultants (PTY) LTD (as enterprise name) with the trade name Funduzi Forensic Services. This certificate bears the registration and business start date of September 5, 2017 and the company’s registration number of 2017/390767/07. However, this publication also has seen a registration certificate purportedly issued by the CIPC on September 6, 2017, which bears the enterprise name DW Wealth Consultants (PTY) LTD and is without the trade name Funduzi Forensic Services. The registration and business start date is also that of September 5, 2017. There is also a certificate of confirmation, purportedly issued by the CIPC on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, at 11:15am after the amendment, as requested by DW Wealth Consultants, was implemented to show that the company is now called DW Wealth Consultants Funduzi Forensic Services (PTY) LTD. Charmaine Motloung, the Senior Manager: Strategic Communications at the CIPC, after checking and verifying the information confirmed that ‘the company registered as DW Wealth Consultants (PTY) LTD in 2017’.

applied

“On August 1, 2023, they applied for a name change to DW Wealth Consultants Funduzi Forensic Services (PTY) Ltd,” she further stated. The AG, when asked why this amendment happened on the day the Cabinet meeting took place, said he could not respond because he was not involved or responsible for this. “I know nothing at all about this,” he said. Both DW Wealth Consultants and Funduzi Forensic Services have their own websites, which, however, have the same taglines: ‘We make your business our business – and we’re alongside you through the crests and valleys’. They also have the same mission statement, which reads: “Forward is the only direction we know. Every day, we live out our mission to enhance and protect our clients’ value.” The two companies are also both under the directorship of Zakhele Dlamini and Denis Vicent Wooley. This, though is not to suggest that the two directors are the ones who have been carrying out the forensic investigation. Dlamini, in a letter to the AG, said the company had retained individuals who are highly professional, ethical and extensively experienced for the investigation.

evaluated

He appealed that his team’s work should be evaluated independently and on the basis of whether the claims made against it can stand scrutiny based on independently verifiable evidence.
“There can be no doubt that any forensic investigation stands or falls, based on whether there is credible evidence to support the findings and conclusions made. This happens to be the only test for credibility of the forensic investigation outcomes,” he said. He was saying this in reference to one Charles Kwezera, who was part of the investigation team, but had to be stopped after being implicated in alleged bribery and extortion directed at two Ministry of Health senior officials. These officials are Sincedile Magwaza and Fortunate Bhembe, who are currently on suspension, as part of the investigation. The two are stationed at the Central Medical Stores (CMS). Dlamini added in his letter to Matsebula: “Finally, we wish to assure you that our team consists of highly qualified individuals which illustrious careers who (sic) are committed only to presenting objective facts which can be independently verified. In the premises, the finalisation of the report, which has now been done by our teams, should not be impacted by the unlawful and unauthorised conduct of Charles Kwezera.”

In his communication to Minister Rijkenberg, Matsebula said the technical profile of Funduzi was appealing, with vast experience and technical expertise on the subject matter, which captured the interest of his office and rated higher than its competitors for the bid. Meanwhile, the AG told the finance minister that he did not know that Funduzi had a local entity until the tender bid documents were submitted. “The Office of the Auditor General got to know of the local extension when the company filed its tender bidding documents, where the statutory documentation submitted were local,” the AG informed the minister.

proposal

The local Funduzi was registered as a company on October 7, 2022, which was almost two months after the AG submitted a forensic investigation proposal on the acquisition and distribution of medicines to public health facilities. Matsebula said the Government Accounting System showed that the Ministry of Health spent over E1 billion on medical drugs; of which recurrent expenditure was E884.4 million and Drugs Trading Account was E151 million in the financial year ended March 31, 2022, while the ministry spent E690 million on medical drugs. The AG said there was then a need to ascertain why there were shortages of medicines when government had spent these amounts. He recommended that ‘a forensic audit should be conducted to ascertain misappropriated medical stock under the Ministry of Health’.