- Seven people were arrested for defrauding the Free
State health department. - An internal investigation revealed more than R8
million was paid to service providers. - However, no evidence could be found on whether the
service providers ever rendered a service.
Two government officials and five company directors
have been charged with defrauding the Free State Department of Health out of
more than R8 million.
This after an internal investigation revealed more
than R8 million was paid to service providers, while no evidence could be found
that they had rendered the services.
The seven suspects were arrested by the Hawks on
Friday and face charges of fraud, forgery, uttering, money laundering, and
corruption.
According to Hawks spokesperson, Captain
Christopher Singo, the alleged fraud was discovered during an audit of the
department by a team from the Auditor-General’s office.
The team requested information on certain payments
to service providers and queried the department’s procurement process.
Singo said:
As a result, an internal investigation followed whereby it was discovered that false or forged ‘requests for payment advices’ were submitted during the period of January 2011 until December 2015, for payments with regards to the service providers. It is further alleged that no evidence could be found whether the actual services were rendered by the service providers.
As a result of the alleged fraud, the department suffered
a total loss of more than R8 million, he added.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated matter, the Special
Investigating Unit (SIU) announced on Monday that it had started investigations
into 2 101 personal protective equipment (PPE) deals awarded by the Gauteng
government. The deals are worth R6.328 billion.
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