THREE of the 42 convicted fraudsters whose names were made public by Justice Minister Jeff Radebe on Sunday in the government’s name-and-shame campaign are from the Eastern Cape.
Clementina Hlabi, Joyce Ngcawe, and DN Sopoli, are former employees of Alfred Nzo District Municipality. This fraud cost the municipality R28-million.
The employees submitted fraudulent time sheets, schedules and requisition orders in terms of which payments were effected.
The fraudsters had access to the personnel management system and also created and effected payments to ghost employees.
Municipality tenders were awarded to employees or their relatives and overpayments were made in respect of those tenders.
The three were convicted of fraud and sentenced to a R20000-fine or 12 months’ imprisonment. The three were released and arranged to pay the fine on R1000 monthly installments.
Assets belonging to them totalling R3.7-million were frozen, and more than R1.2-million in other assets were seized.
Several other municipal officials and a radio personality were also arrested for the case.
The case against former Alfred Nzo municipality assistant director Lizo Cekeshe, former finance intern Zola Moyana, former infrastructure deputy director Zolani Gulwa and Alfred Nzo Community radio personality Mbongeni Tyabule is ongoing at Mt Frere Regional Court.
Alfred Nzo District Municipality confirmed the convicted three had worked at its sanitation zone centres.
The centres were used by the municipality to build sanitation facilities for rural communities.
Justice ministry spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga told the Daily Dispatch that more than 3600 officials had been convicted of defrauding the state in the past financial year alone.
“These 42 names are mainly cases which were prioritised because of the huge amounts involved but other names from a long list of over 3000 convicted individuals will be released in about a month’s time,” Mhaga said.
Mhaga said they were still in a process of consolidating the names, and would make them public. The amount of money involved is said to total nearly R1-billion.
“These people earn exorbitant salaries from the state but are still defrauding the same system ,” Mhaga added.
On Sunday, Radebe told the media that the fight against corruption remained one of the major priorities of government because corruption had a detrimental effect on government’s effort to deliver effective services to the people.
“This aggressive stance has been initiated to ensure that criminals in our society will be made known and held accountable publicly for their actions,” Radebe said.
Criminal investigations were recorded against 242 accused in 89 priority cases involving serious corruption for the 2012-13 financial year. These involve R5-million or more per incident.
Radebe said investigations were progressing against a further 193 accused.
Some other matters involved:
l Post Bank in which a syndicate obtained access to the bank’s computer system and transferred funds to accounts created with the purpose of committing fraud and theft. The total involved was R42.78-million.
l Department of Minerals and Energy-BAS case in which department employees obtained BAS system control login details to reactivate the profiles of former employees with access rights to record, confirm and approve payments on the BAS system. Nine payments totaling over R15-million were then made . Two syndicate members Petros Mngomezulu and Simon Zungu were convicted and sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment.
l A syndicate gained access to SARS systems (Midrand, Gauteng) with the corrupt assistance of a SARS employee and a consultant contracted by SARS and fraudulently changed banking details on the system to divert and effect fraudulent refunds to the value of R77-million into the syndicate’s bank accounts.
Radebe said the Anti-Corruption Task team formed in 2010 had indicated that in addition to the more than 3600, there were 758 persons currently under investigation for corrupt activities and freezing orders to the value of R1.07-billion had been obtained. — mphumziz@dispatch.co.za
Three top EC officials fired for stealing R28-million
Clementina Hlabi, Joyce Ngcawe, and DN Sopoli, are former employees of Alfred Nzo District Municipality. This fraud cost the municipality R28-million.
The employees submitted fraudulent time sheets, schedules and requisition orders in terms of which payments were effected.
The fraudsters had access to the personnel management system and also created and effected payments to ghost employees.
Municipality tenders were awarded to employees or their relatives and overpayments were made in respect of those tenders.
The three were convicted of fraud and sentenced to a R20000-fine or 12 months’ imprisonment. The three were released and arranged to pay the fine on R1000 monthly installments.
Assets belonging to them totalling R3.7-million were frozen, and more than R1.2-million in other assets were seized.
Several other municipal officials and a radio personality were also arrested for the case.
The case against former Alfred Nzo municipality assistant director Lizo Cekeshe, former finance intern Zola Moyana, former infrastructure deputy director Zolani Gulwa and Alfred Nzo Community radio personality Mbongeni Tyabule is ongoing at Mt Frere Regional Court.
Alfred Nzo District Municipality confirmed the convicted three had worked at its sanitation zone centres.
The centres were used by the municipality to build sanitation facilities for rural communities.
Justice ministry spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga told the Daily Dispatch that more than 3600 officials had been convicted of defrauding the state in the past financial year alone.
“These 42 names are mainly cases which were prioritised because of the huge amounts involved but other names from a long list of over 3000 convicted individuals will be released in about a month’s time,” Mhaga said.
Mhaga said they were still in a process of consolidating the names, and would make them public. The amount of money involved is said to total nearly R1-billion.
“These people earn exorbitant salaries from the state but are still defrauding the same system ,” Mhaga added.
On Sunday, Radebe told the media that the fight against corruption remained one of the major priorities of government because corruption had a detrimental effect on government’s effort to deliver effective services to the people.
“This aggressive stance has been initiated to ensure that criminals in our society will be made known and held accountable publicly for their actions,” Radebe said.
Criminal investigations were recorded against 242 accused in 89 priority cases involving serious corruption for the 2012-13 financial year. These involve R5-million or more per incident.
Radebe said investigations were progressing against a further 193 accused.
Some other matters involved:
l Post Bank in which a syndicate obtained access to the bank’s computer system and transferred funds to accounts created with the purpose of committing fraud and theft. The total involved was R42.78-million.
l Department of Minerals and Energy-BAS case in which department employees obtained BAS system control login details to reactivate the profiles of former employees with access rights to record, confirm and approve payments on the BAS system. Nine payments totaling over R15-million were then made . Two syndicate members Petros Mngomezulu and Simon Zungu were convicted and sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment.
l A syndicate gained access to SARS systems (Midrand, Gauteng) with the corrupt assistance of a SARS employee and a consultant contracted by SARS and fraudulently changed banking details on the system to divert and effect fraudulent refunds to the value of R77-million into the syndicate’s bank accounts.
Radebe said the Anti-Corruption Task team formed in 2010 had indicated that in addition to the more than 3600, there were 758 persons currently under investigation for corrupt activities and freezing orders to the value of R1.07-billion had been obtained. — mphumziz@dispatch.co.za
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