FISHY CONTRACT FOR FAILED GENERATORS AT JOBURG HOSPITAL

A mystery company is responsible for servicing the generators at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH) that have failed twice in the past four months.

A generator failed in December last year, and last week on Thursday (14 March) two of the generators did not kick for four hours, which led to panic in the intensive care unit as doctors were called in to save patients.

According to a written reply to my questions by Infrastructure Development MEC Qedani Mahlangu, "the current contractor Opsense Management Consultants were appointed in 2011, from the approved database of suppliers".

A service by Opsense of the five main generators cost R186 000 each, which totals R930 000. They were serviced earlier this year, so it is inexplicable that they failed unless there was major incompetence.

According to records of the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), Opsense is a closed corporation with an address  in Phokeng in the North West Province. Mr Tshepo David Thobejane is the sole member and it is currently in a deregistration process.

MEC Mahlangu made a fool of herself last week on the very day that the generators failed at CMJAH when she said at a press conference: "I can now confidently stand before you and say that in the event of a power outage, generators at Chris Hani Baragwanath and the generators at Charlotte Maxeke will power the hospitals."

In her written reply to me she says: "The Department is satisfied with the current service levels and pricing as offered by the service provider".

I am informed by industry sources that each generator service should not have cost more than R33 000, so it appears that there was gross overcharging for a poor work.

This service should have gone out to tender or a quotation process.

I doubt whether Opsense has real capacity to service generators, and the people who have suffered are staff and patients at the hospital.

Mahlangu can't duck this one. We need real answers why this fishy company was entrusted with an important job that it could not handle.

An inquiry is also needed into possible corruption in this matter.

Statement issued by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Health Spokesman, March 18 2013

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