UTi, a supply chain services and solutions company for the Department of Basic Education, has confirmed that about 100 school workbooks from the 2012 school-year, which local management had assessed to be irreparably damaged, were shredded at its Empangeni warehouse in KwaZulu-Natal.
UTi has apologised to the department for the incident.
The company said it was regrettable that statements to the media and media coverage made references to non-delivery of workbooks and “corruption”. It said no schools had been adversely affected by the incident, and that furthermore there was no evidence of “criminality” or “corruption”.
Once UTi had identified the schools for which the damaged books were intended, the workbooks were replaced and UTi delivered them directly to the schools concerned. This replacement was done within two weeks, and no schools were compromised by non-delivery.
UTi is working with the relevant authorities to provide the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, KZN MEC Senzo Mchunu and other relevant parties with an official report as soon as is practically possible.
UTi delivered 5,578,550 workbooks in KwaZulu-Natal in 2012, and have delivered 5,122,660 to the province for the 2013 school year. The contracted service levels for these distributions were exceeded as confirmed by external auditors appointed by the DBE.
Once UTi’s internal investigation is complete, disciplinary steps will be taken if necessary.
UTi assures the public and the Department of Education that it will reinforce its commitment to following the strict distribution protocols already in place.
Note to Editors:
UTi was appointed as a service provider to a Joint Venture (JV) with Paarl Media and Lebone Litho, for the distribution of school workbooks.
The JV wish to concur with the above release by the Distribution Company UTi. It can attest that all risks are escalated to JV project desk at each incident and full records for events are supplied to the DBE weekly and on exceptional request as per the terms of reference.
In addition the JV has been 100% transparent regarding their commitment to increase employment opportunities attached to this project year on year.
The service provider or consortium of service providers must use the best mode of transport to ensure security and protection from adverse weather and to ease delivery within the time constraints; this may include sub-contracting existing SMME distributors in provinces for the fine distribution. Information about existing SMMEs can be obtained from Provincial Departments of Education (PEDs).
The JV can proudly attest to having had three consecutive unqualified reports from the externally appointed auditors by the DBE for fiscal, professional and quality assurance mandatory compliance in terms of the general conditions of contract for government tenders and PFMA Act of 29 of 1999.
Overall the JV has enhanced the levels of fiscal efficiency gains and effective learning and teaching support.
For more information please contact:
Greg Saffy
Divisions Director, UTi Africa
E-mail: gsaffy@go2uti.com
Lerato Moeletsi-Banda
Communication Manager, UTi Africa
E-mail: lmoeletsi-banda@go2uti.com
Michael Acott
Bairds Communication
E-mail: michael@bairds.co.za
