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The Limpopo government has ordered a probe into the saga surrounding a company that was awarded a lucrative hospital laundry tender, but which is failing to live up to its end of the contract.
Limpopo health MEC Phophi Ramathuba confirmed the investigation a week after City Press exposed the company’s poor operations.
“We have asked the treasury department to investigate all allegations, including the awarding of the contracts. If processes were flawed and some irregularities are found, then there will be consequences faced by those implicated,” said Ramathuba.
At the same time, some of the companies that lost out on a lucrative tender to supply laundry services to Limpopo hospitals said the winning bidder tried to subcontract them at a fraction of the price because it had no capacity to do the work.
Vincent Kanyongolo, whose company lost out, said that when he went to enquire about the awarding of the contract, he was advised by a senior official in the department of health to call the winning bidder, Mphefhedzi, whose owner asked him to come on board as a subcontractor.
“I was given a number to call Mphefhedzi and the owner said he was going to pay me R2.50 per item washed. He said I must decide quickly because people were lining up to grab subcontracting opportunities from him, but I refused to work for him for such a price,” he said.
Mphefhedzi’s owner, Oriel Masiavhula, could not be reached for comment after several calls and two text messages.
Another laundry company that lost out on the bid has raised questions about the scoring of its bids, saying its laundry warehouses were not inspected for suitability before the tender was awarded, as should have been the case.
At the centre of the Limpopo hospital laundry saga is Mphefhedzi Business Enterprises, which was appointed as an accredited laundry service provider for 22 of 41 hospitals in Limpopo. It was awarded the contract despite an inspection report stating that the company did not have most of the equipment required and was “not recommended” to render the service.
Aggrieved bidders, who were already in the laundry business and had experience servicing hospitals, said they were shocked that a company without existing equipment was awarded a contract to service more than half of the hospitals in the province.
At least four of the losing bidders told City Press that Mphefhedzi approached them to come on board.
Provincial government spokesperson Phuti Seloba said, as far as the province was aware, all processes had been followed in awarding the contract.
“Mphefhedzi Business Enterprises was awarded the contract on the basis of the technical evaluation, the price and preferential points scored,” said Seloba.
City Press reported last Sunday that, according to an evaluation inspection report, Mphefhedzi did not have basic equipment to render hospital laundry services.
Pictures also showed that laundry done for St Rita’s Hospital by Mphefhedzi was hung on makeshift washing lines in an industrial area in Seshego outside Polokwane.
This was in contravention of the guidelines for handling hospital laundry, which state that it must “under no circumstances be carried in open delivery vehicles, washed by hand or hung in the open to dry”.
There were also allegations that workers at Mphefhedzi were washing the hospital laundry with their hands.
Another losing bidder, Sidney Tinghitsi of Makwavu Services, said aggrieved bidders would demand that the tender be readvertised
