Dubious jail catering contract extended
Prisoners could soon have their own television channel but the focus will be more on rehabilitation than entertainment. Prisoners could soon have their own television channel but the focus will be more on rehabilitation than entertainment.
A multimillion-rand catering contract with a company implicated by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in bribing top prison officials to win tenders had been extended for a year because it owned the kitchen equipment, Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Sunday.
Even though she had ordered a year ago that preparations be made for inmates to take over cooking for themselves, it had emerged that the company, Bosasa, owned the kitchen equipment, she told journalists at Parliament.
“So we do not have kitchens.”
Bosasa was first awarded the tender in 2004 when it was decided by Correctional Services to outsource catering in seven of its management areas. The SIU later found irregularities in the way the contract was initially awarded.
In her budget speech last year, Mapisa-Nqakula said the department should start preparing for inmates to take over the cooking within a year.
But on Sunday, she said while inmates had been trained to do so, “without kitchen equipment this cannot be done…”.
After “long and agonising debate among ourselves”, it was recommended the contract be extended for six months, Mapisa-Nqakula said.
“But the service provider came in with very high prices.” It was then decided to extend the contract for 12 months.
During this period, all seven management areas would prepare to manage their own catering.
The minister did not explain why buying and fitting new equipment could not have been done during the past year.
The DA has called for a full inquiry into the awarding and extension of the contract. - The Star