Office of Chief Justice denies ‘veil of secrecy’

The Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ) was adamant on Tuesday that there was no veil of secrecy over the R225 million IT tender that involved former employees who formed a company that benefited from the deal.

“I would like to assure the committee that there is no veil of secrecy that we place on this matter. As soon as the audi partem process has happened, we will report,” OCJ secretary-general Memme Sejosengwe said.

“I am not hiding anything and I have nothing to hide. Myself, the executives and department officials will subject themselves to whatever process that needs to happen out of the outcome of this process,” she said.

Sejosengwe made the statement as OCJ briefed the justice and correctional services portfolio committee on allegations of impropriety in the R225m IT tender, a digital case management and litigation system, to Thomson Reuters, and R24m cybersecurity contract to Pursuit Knowledge Consulting (PCK).

The Thomson Reuters tender came into the spotlight in June after three senior officials resigned and became partners to a locally contracted company, ZA Square Consulting. PCK was flagged in irregular expenditure involving tenders amounting to R52m by Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke in her 2021-22 audit report after procurement procedures involving Sita were not followed.

Sejosengwe said they had previously indicated they would do an internal investigation and assessment of the ICT procurement. She said they realised while conducting the internal investigation that given the capacity constraints in the OCJ, the issues and their complexity required more in terms of skills to get to the bottom of the matters.

“Through the SIU secondment arrangement, they beefed up our team to make sure the investigation can go deeper. The investigation has been concluded from our side internally,” she said, adding that the report was submitted in September. Sejosengwe said they were now at a stage that the investigation should continue further with regard to what has come out.

“The findings and recommendations in that report are interim because audi partem rules still have to be complied with,” she said. Sejosengwe said they had been in consultation with Thomson Reuters with regard to the contract as well as business continuity. “Both parties have agreed that the system as it is now being implemented in the Gauteng High Court Division continues to be supported and continues to function so that we save the system.

“In addition, the OCJ together with counsel are busy with draft papers as we have communicated to Thomson Reuters that we will be going to court with regards to the contract for its review,” she said. “That process is in the hands of our legal counsel, who is busy with the papers, which should in all probabilities reach court within a month or six weeks,” Sejosengwe said.

She also told the MPs that they subjected the PCK tender to the internal investigation, but the company on Tuesday lodged an urgent application in court after OCJ refused to pay it. “We filed a notice to oppose the matter on an urgent basis as well as filed papers with regard to the review of this contract.” Sejosengwe also said they had approached the SIU for a proclamation.

“I would like to indicate at this stage that I would not be able to ventilate the issues that came out of our report until the audi partem process is complete. “I would like to urge and ask members of the committee to ask for indulgence so that once these processes are completed, we can be able to provide an appropriate response to the committee lest we open the organisation to legal challenge for exposing what the report is saying without a right of reply for affected parties.”

She told the MPs that her team had met Sita to work together on compliance issues and had provided Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola with a turnaround audit plan.