South Africa's tender watchdog has reportedly blocked a R378-million deal between the Correctional Services department and an African National Congress (ANC) benefactor. According to a report by News24 on Thursday‚ documents show how the prisons department national commissioner‚ Zach Modise‚ allegedly ignored requests by the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer‚ which is situated within the Department of National Treasury‚ to review the processes in awarding a tender to Integritron Integrated Solutions.Integritron is a security system business‚ providing services in perimeter detection‚ access control and software solutions. It was contracted to develop a system to monitor inmates electronically for the department.Chief procurement officer Kenneth Brown has now ordered Modise to cancel the deal entirely‚ with Modise personally covering the costs of any wasteful expenditure incurred through the cancellation process‚ the report said.Numerous irregularities have been flagged with Integritron's tender bid.ANC MP Vincent Smith last month in parliament asked Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha how the department planned to fund the expensive IT project when it only had R16-million in its budget‚ according to a Business Day report. Modise told MPs the project would be funded over three years.Integritron is part of the Sasstec group of companies‚ which have benefitted from government tenders in the past.SA Fence and Gate‚ also part of the group‚ has been awarded government tenders by Eskom‚ the Department of Correctional Services and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa‚ according to the News24 report. The article said the company is an ANC donor and belongs to the party's Progressive Business Forum.Correctional Services spokesperson Manelisi Wolela could not be reached by phone on Thursday morning.National Treasury spokesperson Phumza Macanda said on Thursday that the office of the chief procurement officer would not be commenting on the matter at this stage.Brown was appointed in February 2013 as South Africa’s first Chief Procurement Officer‚ to oversee the way in which government does business with the private sector.Annually‚ the South African government is the largest buyer in the country as it spends over R500 billion on goods‚ services and construction works through over 1000 procuring entities‚ according to a statement by Brown on his office's website."It is well known that public procurement in South Africa at present is far from perfect… Service delivery protests are a sign that people feel that they are not receiving the quantity or quality of services they need. Schools sometimes open for the starting year without books‚" Brown's statement reads."An efficient and intelligent public procurement system can help to overcome these problems. The vision is one of a public procurement system in South Africa which is made up of people with the skills‚ knowledge and enthusiasm needed to ensure that every decision that they make is well-informed and appropriate; who have the technical and organisational support to carry out this important work."Brown has been with the Treasury since 1998. His previous role was to oversee provincial and local government finances...