The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has decided to lodge an enquiry into allegations that the Government Employees’ Medical Scheme (GEMS) awarded a R600 million vitamin contract to Activo Health, a subsidiary of JSE-listed AfroCentric.

Afrocentric owns Medscheme, the GEMS administrator, which oversaw the awarding of the contract, Pretoria News reported.

GEMS covers civil servants and their dependants and is the biggest restricted medical scheme in SA.

According to the CMS, it only became aware of these allegations after reading about it in the media.

“There were no complaints or allegations laid through a tip-off about this incident,” the CMS says in a statement. Now that it is aware of the allegations, it has decided to lodge an enquiry on the reported allegations against GEMS.

“The aim of the enquiry and any subsequent processes is to get to the bottom of this and ensure that all the parties that are regulated by the CMS are compliant with the Medical Schemes Act,” states the CMS.

It said it cannot comment on the specifics of the matter at this stage “to avoid pre-empting the outcome of the enquiry”.

“At the appropriate time, the CMS will issue the findings of the enquiry and address any such related questions from stakeholders,” it said.