SUSPECTS ARRESTED FOR DEFRAUDING THE DEPARTMENT R8.7 MILLION

FREE STATE – Seven suspects are expected to appear before the Bloemfontein Regional Court on Monday, 02 August 2021 where they will be facing charges of fraud, forgery, uttering, money laundering, and corruption. They were arrested on Friday, 30 July 2021 by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation in Bloemfontein.
It is alleged that during the course of the regulatory audit in the Department of Health, the audit team from the Auditor-General requested information on certain payments to service providers and subsequently queried the procurement processes that were followed. 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.
A total amount of more than R8 million was paid to the service providers. As a result the Department of Health was prejudiced and suffered a total loss of more than R8 million.
The matter was then reported to the police and a case was handed over to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation in Bloemfontein for further investigation which led to the arrest of two government officials and five company directors.