A MUNICIPAL employee took more than R2.5-million from a municipal account and put it into her sister’s account.
Documents seen by the Daily Dispatch show that OR Tambo district municipality finance directorate staff member Nyameka Qongqo requested authorisation for the amount on Tuesday April 12 this year. Co-worker Fundiswa Mgidlana did a partial authorisation 12 minutes later, and Sabelo Hopa gave the final OK 27 minutes after the initial request.
The payment was queried by OR Tambo chief financial officer Moabi Moleko when he discovered some documents missing from the expenditure section in his department.
In an internal memo Moleko states that he had started physically counting documents to ensure that they were available for audit. While counting he discovered that two identical amounts had been paid but no documents were available to support the payments.
The first R2.5-million was paid to OR Tambo service provider Zanamanzi Services on March 7 and the questionable amount paid in April to an FNB account held by Qongqo’s sibling.
In the municipality’s records the account is recorded as belonging to Zanamanzi Services but it actually belongs to T Qongqo.
“The two amounts were paid to Zanamanzi Services on March 7 and April…upon inquiry from Zanamanzi Services about the two payments, they confirmed that they had only received R2542479.31 in March 2014 and that their account was at Standard Bank.
“I scrutinised the audit trail of the payment and found that it had gone to an FNB account,” wrote Moleko.
He wrote that after inquiring from FNB, he discovered that the account number used in the second transaction belonged to a T Qongqo while the authorisation request for the payment had been done by Nyameka Qongqo.
“Based on my preliminary findings and the double payments we have experienced recently wherein was involved, I have reason to believe that she primarily orchestrated the transaction and that the Municipal Finance Management Act Section 32 (6) must be applied immediately because of the risk of potentially losing further amounts and documents.
“Her presence in the institution is also an inherent risk to losing important documents which may assist in the investigation,” he wrote.
Section 32 (6) requires the accounting officer to report to the SAPS all cases of irregular expenditure that are related to fraud and theft.
Nyameka Qongqo is suspended pending the outcome of an internal probe.
OR Tambo spokesman Pendule Mbewu said the municipality was dealing “decisively” with all allegations of corruption, including Qongqo’s case. “The necessary action will be taken. We are committed to dealing with all acts of fraud and corruption and ensuring clean governance,” he said.
Provincial cooperative governance and traditional affairs SG Stanley Khanyile said his department would pursue the matter and other cases of fraud and corruption at OR Tambo. “It is a worrying trend. It bothers us that there are things like this happening. It had not been brought to our attention before but now that we have been made aware of it, we are going to give it the seriousness it deserves.
“We are very worried, especially when it involves someone who has been entrusted with handling public funds,” said Khanyile.
The matter has also been referred to the SAPS commercial crimes unit for investigation. — abongilem@dispatch.co.za
CFO spots missing millions
Documents seen by the Daily Dispatch show that OR Tambo district municipality finance directorate staff member Nyameka Qongqo requested authorisation for the amount on Tuesday April 12 this year. Co-worker Fundiswa Mgidlana did a partial authorisation 12 minutes later, and Sabelo Hopa gave the final OK 27 minutes after the initial request.
The payment was queried by OR Tambo chief financial officer Moabi Moleko when he discovered some documents missing from the expenditure section in his department.
In an internal memo Moleko states that he had started physically counting documents to ensure that they were available for audit. While counting he discovered that two identical amounts had been paid but no documents were available to support the payments.
The first R2.5-million was paid to OR Tambo service provider Zanamanzi Services on March 7 and the questionable amount paid in April to an FNB account held by Qongqo’s sibling.
In the municipality’s records the account is recorded as belonging to Zanamanzi Services but it actually belongs to T Qongqo.
“The two amounts were paid to Zanamanzi Services on March 7 and April…upon inquiry from Zanamanzi Services about the two payments, they confirmed that they had only received R2542479.31 in March 2014 and that their account was at Standard Bank.
“I scrutinised the audit trail of the payment and found that it had gone to an FNB account,” wrote Moleko.
He wrote that after inquiring from FNB, he discovered that the account number used in the second transaction belonged to a T Qongqo while the authorisation request for the payment had been done by Nyameka Qongqo.
“Based on my preliminary findings and the double payments we have experienced recently wherein was involved, I have reason to believe that she primarily orchestrated the transaction and that the Municipal Finance Management Act Section 32 (6) must be applied immediately because of the risk of potentially losing further amounts and documents.
“Her presence in the institution is also an inherent risk to losing important documents which may assist in the investigation,” he wrote.
Section 32 (6) requires the accounting officer to report to the SAPS all cases of irregular expenditure that are related to fraud and theft.
Nyameka Qongqo is suspended pending the outcome of an internal probe.
OR Tambo spokesman Pendule Mbewu said the municipality was dealing “decisively” with all allegations of corruption, including Qongqo’s case. “The necessary action will be taken. We are committed to dealing with all acts of fraud and corruption and ensuring clean governance,” he said.
Provincial cooperative governance and traditional affairs SG Stanley Khanyile said his department would pursue the matter and other cases of fraud and corruption at OR Tambo. “It is a worrying trend. It bothers us that there are things like this happening. It had not been brought to our attention before but now that we have been made aware of it, we are going to give it the seriousness it deserves.
“We are very worried, especially when it involves someone who has been entrusted with handling public funds,” said Khanyile.
The matter has also been referred to the SAPS commercial crimes unit for investigation. — abongilem@dispatch.co.za
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