Health4Sale: Government employee represents private company as Free State again prepares to outsource part of ambulance service
By Marcus Low and Anso Thom
On 5 October 2018 the Free State Department of Health advertised a large new three-year private ambulance tender that requires 30 ambulances and around 250 paramedics. This flies in the face of comments by Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi that it is not national policy to outsource ambulance services. Earlier this year Motsoaledi said he told then Free State MEC for Health Butana Komphela that “it is wrong for them to privatise ambulance services. They must run them on their own”.
The new tender also comes as a surprise given the controversy surrounding the previous tender, with widespread complaints of poor service from Buthelezi EMS – a company that is currently the subject of both Hawks and National Treasury investigations. National Treasury this week told Spotlight the investigation into the Buthelezi EMS contracts “is still continuing as information is still being gathered, and will be concluded in due course”. In addition, according to Mariette Pittaway, Democratic Alliance (DA) member of the Free State legislature and spokesperson on Health, the DA in July requested the Public Protector to investigate three controversial contracts the Free State Department of Health entered into with Buthelezi EMS, Mediosa and Halo Aviation.
The tender also flies in the face of undertakings given to parliament regarding the in-sourcing of ambulance services in the province. A recent parliamentary report notes the commitment to in-source and lists a long series of complaints regarding the current ambulance service in the province, mostly relating to long waiting times and to calls not being answered at the call centre.
“The Department is not outsourcing but augmenting its capacity because we have been replacing the ambulance fleet and not increasing it,” said Mondli Mvambi, spokesperson for the Free State Department of Health. “What we require is an increased EMS fleet in order to meet the service requirements of 1 ambulance per 10 000 people in a population excluding inter-facility transfers.
Mvambi also said that the new tender was not large in comparison to previous contracts. “The initial contract had 47 ambulances. The cancelled contract required 40 ambulances in line with the commitment to downscale. The current advertised contract requires 30 ambulances,” he said. “We are not going against the advice of the Minister but responding to EMS service requirements.”
“Due to the inadequate EMS capacity, especially in rural communities where ambulances often double up as patient transport services, the Department should rather maintain and enlarge its own ambulance fleet,” said Pittaway.
The only other province that has outsourced its road ambulance service is the North West. We understand that unlike the Free State the North West will not be advertising a new private ambulance tender when their current tender runs out in March next year.
R123 million since end of contract
The new contract follows on a previous three-year contract awarded to Buthelezi EMS at the end of 2013. “The contract with Buthelezi EMS expired in August 2017,” says Mariette Pittaway of the Democratic Alliance. “On a question in a Portfolio meeting I directed to the Health HOD, Dr (David) Motau, he informed me it was renewed on a month to month basis. This is problematic since the department knew exactly when the contract would expire and could have advertised the new invitation to tender long before the termination date.”
The month-to-month extensions of the Buthelezi EMS contract appears to have continued for more than a year until September 2018 – the date on which the Free State Department of Health claims its contract finally ended. The department declined to respond to a suggestion that the contract extensions was in contravention of the Public Finance Management Act (PMFA). The PFMA typically does not allow month-to-month extensions for more than six months.
According to the Free State Department of Health Buthelezi EMS has been paid over R123 million since the contract expired.
In October 2017 a new tender was advertised, but that tender was never awarded – and has essentially been replaced by the tender advertised in October 2018. According to the department the tender advertised in 2017 was never awarded because “the specifications had to be amended in order to allow broader competition”.
While having advertised the new tender the province has also purchased 110 ambulances, 60 of which have now been delivered.
Government employee represents B EMS at tender briefing
On 16 October 2018 Spotlight attended a compulsory tender briefing for the new Free State ambulance tender. One of Thapelo Buthelezi’s many companies, B EMS (the current incarnation of Buthelezi EMS) was represented by Mr Edwin Lecheko. Lecheko filled in the attendance register with his own name, Thapelo Buthelezi’s e-mail address, and a phone number that TrueCaller identifies as belonging to Thapelo Buthelezi. It is also the same number which Buthelezi used to respond to questions from Spotlight earlier this year. .
Lecheko is currently an employee of the Maluti A Phofung municipality. Until at least November 2017 he worked closely with the former Maluti A Phofung mayor Vusi Tshabalala, a known ally of former Free State Premier Ace Magashule. There is online evidence of him being quoted as a spokesperson for the former Mayor at events. Spotlight previously reported on how Magashule cleared the way for a controversial rates increase granted to Buthelezi EMS. Neither Lecheko or Buthelezi responded to questions sent by Spotlight.
The specifications for the new tender are contradictory on whether state employees are allowed to bid. First it says, “Any legal person, including persons employed by the state’, or persons having a kinship with persons employed by the state, including a blood relationship, may make an offer or offers in terms of this invitation to bid”. Then later it says, “All the state employees are not allowed to do a business with the Free State Department of Health.”
When asked about this contradiction, Mvambi did not address the question, but merely referred us to the latter of the two quotations above. The DA’s Pittaway said, “we believe that civil servants should not be allowed to tender for lucrative government contracts and a cooling off period should be adhered to after they have exited the civil service.”
Questions regarding tender specifications
One aspect of the new tender that has at least one rival ambulance company concerned is that it requires a fleet of 30 ambulances and around 250 registered paramedics ready to be deployed. It seems likely that the current service provider, Buthelezi EMS (or B EMS), will have this capacity in place given that they are currently contracted to provide the service. For other companies to invest in this capacity would be risky given that they may well not be awarded the tender.
“The insinuation that the Department is tailor making specifications to favour Buthelezi EMS and its associates is unfair and baseless because if this was the case, they would have been advantaged in the previous round of the cancelled tender,” said Mvambi, when asked about this aspect of the tender. “We cancelled the tender and readvertised it in order to allow broader competition and responsiveness from potential suppliers.”
The new tender also requires that the service provider seconds staff to the provincial call centre. Healthcare workers in the province previously alleged that some of the alleged overcharging in the province is due to corruption at call centre level. We understand that Buthelezi EMS has for some time had staff in the provincial call centre.
In recent parliamentary meeting minutes produced by the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, it was reported that a private company (presumably Buthelezi EMS from the context) had an office inside of a casualty ward inside a public hospital in the Free State. The minutes read as follows:
“At Albert Nzula District Hospital the Committee had to note that it had found an ambulance service provider provided with office space inside the casualty ward whereas; there was an ambulance facility 50 meters away from the casualty. It had also been clear and suggestion had abounded that Buthelezi EMS had a choice in taking the most lucrative trips because of its proximity in the hospital. How and why could a private contractor have an office inside a public hospital casualty ward? The Committee was never answered satisfactorily in that regard.”
When asked why the tender required bidders to second staff to the call centre, Mvambi said “This is so in order to ensure better control of the resources and improve coordination as the EMS Centres are interlinked. As the Department of Health is the custodian of Patient Records pertaining this contract.”
The National Department of Health did not provide comment by the time of publication.
Note: While Spotlight is published by SECTION27 and the Treatment Action Campaign, its editors have full editorial independence – independence that the editors guard jealously. Spotlight is a member of the South African Press Council.
7 Responses to “Health4Sale: Government employee represents private company as Free State again prepares to outsource part of ambulance service”
Petrie
I dit aplay but til now never resiefd a phon cal for interview but thy need pepol so how dos it works i got nessesery kwalifikasions and jear exsperians but stil no reacsion so now wher is the problim then of the sortietch of staf what thy rekwaier and a bout a week a go i phond for ambulance but ther whir no aser second time thy pict up but no one spok a word and put phone down ther after no anser a gen
Concerned
B ems has been, docking employees pay, suspending and terminating their employment without due process. Employees don’t get their IRP5’s eventhough tax deductions appear on the few payslips they receive. Meaning SARS has no record of some of them. UIF contributions are deducted from their pay but are not updated at the department of Labour, so dismissed employees cannot claim UIF. This surely needs spotlights attention too as it cannot be right, that people get exploited like this.
khohliwe
I’m unemployed cos they terminated my contract in July for unnecessary reason after employees of Buthelezi created a whatsapp group communicating about why we still not paid our salary,its where they started to call hearing for employees that joined whatsapp group in that group we where about 400 to 500 employees,i went to CCMA and they didnt attend the case and at labour I cannot claim UIF cos on their system shows that Buthelezi paid only two months in two years,can somebody help me with my problem.
Thabo
On this regard it is almost 49days without Salaries,we laid complaints HR’s office but we get bile of lies on daily basics, When we contact the CEO of the company Monica Buthelezi, She eventually speak to the the employees in a rude manner and drop their calls, when Asked about the RIP5 that she was supposed to present to us she rudelessly ask if we have anything to do with RIP5 with a concern that the correspondence of SARS and Her Company doesn’t have a mere correspondence. I was on leave and received a message that I must be on a “Lay Of Time” meaning I must stay at home without no salary where’s they haven’t pay me my Money.
Liz
It is the trend that Only half of the purchased ambulances are delivered and the remainder never gets to be delivered in FS EMS. This has been happening since the initiation of the Buthelezi contract.
You also need to investigate the FS EMS liason officer as signed.
There are 3 EMS managers who needs a lifestyle audit done on them.
Lastly, please also investigate the FS EMS ambulance conversions suppliers as it is rumored that certain EMS high rankings are geting R5000 per (5000× 110 ambulance) converted ambulance from the selected converter. The money is collected with brief cases in hard cash by the high rankings of EMS when they visit the converter. The monies will not reflect on their bank accounts as they are stored with relatives who has businesses so it reflects as their business proceeds.
This matter needs public protector intervention.
Thabang
I have never seen such an embarrassing company like this in my whole entire life. Firstly they don’t know respect their work Thapelo Buthelezi himself, secondly 90% of of their ambulances are not road worthy doors are falling but still employees are still forced to work with them. Thirdly employees they don’t have any rights in that. Company. As a concerned citizen of South Africa, based in Free State Bloemfontein I’d vote that all this private ambulance tenders be stopped because they’re not bringing any good service delivery to our people, instead they’re bringing bad service delivery I can definitely assure you that B Ems or buthelezi is not an emergency service. However, it is a taxi transport. Why I am saying this is because they’re no equipment to treat patients inside of so called ambulance even a simple blood pressure monitor. But at the end I don’t blame Thapelo Buthelezi the owner of B Ems I blame the whole entire Anc cabinet they’re corrupt I wonder if next year will still be our government.?” but I guess that shall not happen
Gift
I worked for Buthelezi I was fired by the so called Hr manager Tshepiso Tsotetsi I never resived my UIF I called him several times guys pls don’t allow any tenders in FS I worked for government as ILS,they must buy new ambulance infact they are NY buying them they lease them from government garage so they cn lease the ambulance,most of government department are leasing the cars from government garage,I cn tel u stories about the service of Buthelezi thts y I ws fired cause I knw too much,pls don’t allow tht tender Mvambi is always protecting Buthelezi I knw him,pt have died for nothing, personnel died in accident because of driving under pressure and driving long distance without rest,when u want to rest its disciplinary hearing 1000 will be deducted for resting guys tel the department of health to lease the vehicle from government garage I knw they are leasing.