Willie Mathebula, who was appointed Treasury's acting chief procurement officer by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba, did not make a good impression on the DA during his appearance in Parliament on Wednesday.
His appearance follows a report in City Press that Mathebula (along with Gigaba) is looking at restructuring the office of the chief procurement officer (OCPO). This could lead to the weakening of its powers and to government departments again having the final say over multimillion-rand tenders.
Mathebula discussed the issues around the OCPO, departmental requests for deviation from Treasury tender practice and the nuclear build programme with MPs on the parliamentary standing committee on finance. But according to the DA's David Maynier, he was "poorly prepared, produced a pathetic presentation and was incapable of responding to questions".
"The fear that the OCPO, which is one of the most important institutions in the fight against state capture, has been 'defanged', seems to have been confirmed," Maynier said in a statement.