Cele signed new dodgy tender deal

25 March 2012 - 02:04 By MZILIKAZI WA AFRIKA, STEPHAN HOFSTATTER AND ROB ROSE
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Police top brass were showered with free flights, a car, luxury 4x4 hire and college fees by a businessman who scored a dodgy R26-million World Cup tender that was signed off by suspended national police commissioner General Bheki Cele.

Bheki Cele. File photo.
Bheki Cele. File photo.
Image: ALON SKUY
THOSHAN PANDAY: From bounced cheques to a new Ferrari - and gifts for policemen
THOSHAN PANDAY: From bounced cheques to a new Ferrari - and gifts for policemen
COLONEL NAVIN MADHOE: Received tickets and a second-hand car Picture: INL
COLONEL NAVIN MADHOE: Received tickets and a second-hand car Picture: INL
THOSHAN PANDAY: From bounced cheques to a new Ferrari - and gifts for policemen
THOSHAN PANDAY: From bounced cheques to a new Ferrari - and gifts for policemen
COLONEL NAVIN MADHOE: Received tickets and a second-hand car Picture: INL
COLONEL NAVIN MADHOE: Received tickets and a second-hand car Picture: INL

Thoshan Panday's contract to provide accommodation for 1280 police officers during the 2010 World Cup never went out to tender, violating Treasury rules that say all government contracts worth more than R500000 must follow a competitive bid process.

The Sunday Times has established that Panday, the owner of Goldcoast Trading, lavished gifts on three police officials in key positions to approve the deal.

Cele signed off on the deal on June 7 2010 - four days before the first game of the World Cup - after his officials said there was no time "to advertise a bid".

Treasury rules say a lack of proper planning cannot be used as an excuse for failing to go out to tender. In any event, police started planning for the World Cup two years before the deal was signed.

Moreover, documents seen by the Sunday Times show that Panday had already been sourcing World Cup accommodation a month earlier, indicating he had been tipped off that he would get the deal.

The Sunday Times has also obtained new evidence that Panday splurged R2.5-million on a Ferrari California just five days after the SA Police Service deposited R5-million in his Goldcoast account to pay for earlier police deals that are now under investigation. Earlier in 2009, prior to getting the police tenders, Goldcoast's cheques regularly bounced owing to lack of funds.

A trail of internal police memos, invoices, cheques, car-rental agreements, airline records and court papers shows Panday paid:

Car rental for a Toyota 4x4 during the World Cup for police procurement boss Major-General Ravi Pillay, who certified the deal as being urgent;

R43500 to Varsity College to pay the fees for the son of KwaZulu-Natal police supply-chain manager Captain Aswin Narainpershad, who handled the accommodation quotes;

R8584 for return flights to Cape Town for the family of Narainpershad's boss, KwaZulu-Natal police supply-chain boss Colonel Navin Madhoe, in January 2010; and

R60000 to Advocate Cars for a 2002 Toyota 160i that was driven to Madhoe's house, signed for by his wife and registered in his son's name.

This is the first time Pillay, who is based at police headquarters in Pretoria, has been named as having received gifts from Panday.

Pillay did not return repeated messages this week.

Madhoe and Narainpershad are accused by Hawks investigators in court papers of manipulating police tender procedures "to obtain a single quotation from Goldcoast, even though no real emergency existed".

Documents reveal Goldcoast and four other companies owned by Panday, his wife, Privisha Summurjeeth, mother, Arenda Panday, and brother-in-law, Seevesh Ishwarkumar, were awarded police accommodation tenders worth over R60-million in a 10-month period between 2009 and 2012, with prices often inflated by up to 400%. This included the World Cup contract.

For one contract - approved by Madhoe and Narainpershad - Panday paid Mrs Gets B&B R30492 to accommodate six policemen for 20 nights, but billed the police R119880 for that same accommodation.

Panday and Madhoe were arrested in September last year, accused of trying to pay R2-million to the KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss, Major-General Johan Booysen, to "bury" the case against them. Booysen himself was suspended last month for failing to act against members of the Cato Manor organised crime unit, who are being probed by the Independent Complaints Directorate for using excessive force in 51 "suspicious" deaths of suspects.

Booysen claims his suspension - which was lifted this week - was part of a "smear campaign" against him by Panday and Madhoe.

Asked this week about his relationship with Panday and why he'd signed off on the Goldcoast deal without following proper tender procedures, Cele said: "I don't know anything about Panday," and said the deal was simply "brought up to me". He denied ever meeting Panday until a few months ago, when he bumped into him at the Gateway shopping centre in Umhlanga.

Cele is currently facing a commission of inquiry into his fitness for office after the Sunday Times exposed his pivotal role in awarding police leases worth R1.6-billion to businessman Roux Shabangu without going out to tender.

This week, Panday confirmed he had paid Narainpershad's son's college fees, describing it as a "bursary". But he denied paying for Madhoe's flights, buying a car for his son or paying for car rental for Pillay, despite being shown documentary evidence of the transactions.

Panday declined to reply to detailed questions. "Our client reserves his right to respond in a court of law," said his lawyer, Tashya Giyapersad.

Madhoe's lawyer, Ravindra Maniklall, said any claims that his client received gifts were "unfounded, defamatory and maliciously designed to shift [the] focus from the real criminal conduct of certain individuals under investigation".

Asked about the tickets - paid for with Panday's Diner's Club card - for flights to Cape Town for Madhoe, his wife, Vijayanthy, his daughter, Trishane, and his son, Prinolin, Maniklall said Panday was "used as a service provider privately and paid for his services rendered".

He was unable to provide proof that Madhoe had reimbursed Panday.

He denied Panday had paid for Madhoe's son's car, which was bought for cash, but could not explain where the family had found the money.

When the Sunday Times asked Narainpershad why his son's college fees were paid by Panday, he hung up and did not answer further calls or SMSes.

The SAPS did not respond to detailed questions this week about corruption in its supply-chain management division, other than to say that there was "an ongoing external-based probe" into that department.

  • investigations@sundaytimes.co.za
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