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Pietermaritzburg - The IFP on Wednesday demanded to know how a man accused of tender irregularities in Gauteng could be appointed to the post of chief financial officer in KwaZulu-Natal.
The IFP’s health spokesperson Ncamisile Nkwanyana said she would be demanding answers from the province’s Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo and Premier Senzo Mchunu over the appointment of Ndoda Biyela.
The DA's KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson for health Imran Keeka said: "Redeployment of cadres from one province to another where they underperform or are allegedly corrupt, diminishes the integrity of the province they have been redeployed to.
"They will linger on with the same stain and constant suspicion. The DA believes he was not good in Gauteng. How will he be good here?"
Sibongile Zungu, the head of the KwaZulu-Natal health department, on Tuesday confirmed that Ndoda Biyela had been appointed CFO for the department in February.
Contract awarded without going to tender
Biyela was suspended as CFO of the Gauteng provincial health department last August.
While the Gauteng health department has never stated what came of these allegations or what exactly they were, the DA's spokesperson for health in Gauteng, Jack Bloom, said he believed the allegations related to a linen contract reportedly awarded in May 2013 without going to tender.
"Biyela reportedly wrote in an addendum that tender requirements were waived because of the urgency to procure linen for the Jabulani and New Natalspruit hospitals," Bloom said at the time.
Nkwanyana said: “It is shocking that Mr Biyela gets appointed in KZN when he was suspended as chief financial officer of the Gauteng Department of Health in August last year following allegations of irregularities relating to procurement processes in the department. How a person who was mentioned in serious allegations can be employed in such a vital position dealing with finances is beyond logic.
"We demand that Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo must furnish us with the names of other candidates who applied and were interviewed for this position. He must tell us on what grounds they chose Biyela as the rightful candidate to take up this position."
Ndoda replaces Mashaka Enos Ravhura who was dismissed earlier this year for misconduct.
Bloom said: "To resurface in KwaZulu-Natal is absolutely appalling. This is shocking news. He was facing very serious charges."
‘Parted ways amicably’
He said that he would check with the Gauteng health department as to what had come of the investigations against Biyela.
Gauteng health department spokesperson Prince Hamnca said on Tuesday that Biyela and the department had "parted ways amicably".
Asked about the allegations levelled against Biyela, Hamnca said that: "I can't discuss the contents of the agreement [between the department and Biyela]."
Biyela was previously the acting CFO at the KwaZulu-Natal health department in 2009 and 2010.
- If you have more information on this story, e-mail Giordano.Stolley@24.com.
