Report slams minister's R800m fisheries bungle

The minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, wasted taxpayers' money, behaved unethically and tried to interfere in an investigation into alleged misconduct by her and her department.

These are some of the damning findings contained in the provisional public protector report into the "irregular" awarding of an R800-million contract two years ago to a politically connected business consortium.

The Sunday Times has seen the provisional report, which is in the process of being finalised. It will be made public on Thursday and includes the following findings:

The awarding of the contract - to manage the department's fleet of research and patrol ships - to the Sekunjalo Marine Services Consortium, led by business tycoon Iqbal Survé, was improper and constituted maladministration;

The contract award process showed evidence of collusive tendering and/or bid rigging by the Sekunjalo consortium; and

The department awarded the contract in November 2011 without dealing with concerns raised by its own senior legal counsel and independent auditors.

The final report will take into account additional submissions that affected parties made in respect of the various findings.

The report urged President Jacob Zuma to consider disciplinary action against Joemat-Pettersson, and for the department to investigate the "suspicious" conduct of a senior departmental official and member of the bid adjudication committee.

Joemat-Pettersson twice met public protector Thuli Madonsela to discuss the complaints lodged against her and her department, but later attempted to get Justice Minister Jeff Radebe to intervene in the investigation - which she branded "unnecessary", the provisional report said.

This despite the fact that DAFF revoked the contract less than three months after it was awarded, following a High Court challenge.

Joemat-Pettersson also ignored advice from Madonsela regarding the subsequent hand-over of the department's fleet at short notice to the South African Navy, which was ill-equipped to carry out vital fishing surveys required to regulate the industry.

At one stage, Madonsela intervened to advise the minister against such a move, but Joemat-Pettersson ignored her advice.

Madonsela's findings appear to confirm major criticism of the minister's controversial role in the South African fishing industry, which is now without a proper patrol fleet, largely because of the Sekunjalo fiasco.

Not only did her department bungle the contract - resulting in the fleet being transferred to the navy where it sat idle for a year - but she failed to remedy the situation and thereby contributed to the alleged decimation of South Africa's fishing resources, the report said.

It also blasted the decision to give a fisheries patrol contract to a company with a huge fishing fleet. Premier Fishing, one of the country's largest fishing companies, is a subsidiary of Sekunjalo Investments.

For the previous 12 years, the fleet had been managed by maritime company Smit Amandla, a company with vast vessel management experience.

By comparison, the Sekunjalo consortium had little capacity or international vessel management experience.

A detailed review of Sekunjalo's bid submission by auditors SizweNtsalubaGobodo, outlined in Madonsela's provisional report, found that the consortium planned to "capacitate themselves" for the job by poaching staff from Smit Amandla.

Despite these and other obvious bid deficiencies, the consortium received a perfect score of 5/5 in all categories from one of the bid evaluators, a senior department official, who scored Smit Amandla 1/5 in all categories.

Sekunjalo chairman Iqbal Survé has close ties to Zuma. His investment company has prominent stakes in fishing, healthcare and telecommunications, and recently acquired a major stake in the Independent Newspapers Group.

Public protector spokesperson Kgalalelo Masibi this week confirmed receiving Joemat-Pettersson's response to the provisional report, which would be included in the final report.

The Sunday Times was unable to reach Joemat-Pettersson, Survé or Radebe.

The two complainants in the Sekunjalo matter, Smit Amandla and Democratic Alliance MP Pieter van Dalen, declined to comment on the provisional report. Van Dalen said: "We respect the public protector and the process she has set out. We will wait for the final report to come out."

Madonsela's final report is likely to reignite calls for Zuma to remove Joemat-Pettersson from the cabinet . She has angered many stakeholders in the fishing industry and recently survived a run-in with the agriculture, forestry and fisheries portfolio committee, which she accused of being incompetent.

Her remarks prompted an ANC member of the committee to call her a liar.

Joemat-Pettersson has been on the receiving end of the public protector before. Last year, Madonsela found her guilty of wasting taxpayers' money and violating the executive ethics code when she spent R150000 on return tickets to Sweden for her two children and their au pair.