Two senior Mpumalanga education officials have been fired after the department lost more than R1-million in the past financial year, it said on Tuesday.
Spokesperson Jasper Zwane said in a statement that Jerry Tshoba, who was the chief director of corporate services and Michael Mogorosi, the former deputy director general designated chief
financial officer were dismissed following a disciplinary hearing earlier this month.
Zwane said the dismissals followed an investigation into allegations of financial misconduct in the department during the 2006/2007 financial year.
The investigation was conducted by the integrity unit in the premier’s office, he said.
The two employees were initially put on precautionary suspension and were later charged and served with papers specifying the allegations.
”Mr Tshoba was charged with flouting the rules and regulations for rejecting the 16 service providers nominated by the bid evaluation committee and replacing them with his own preferred 18 service providers,” Zwane said.
Tshoba was also charged with forgery after it was alleged that he forged the head of department’s signature and purported it to be that of the department’s accounting officer, thereby adjusting the tenders in question.
”His act caused the department to suffer a loss of R1 076 445. The alternative to this charge was dishonesty and misrepresentation.
”He [Tshoba] was further charged with fraud and corruption and the alternative to this count was failure to comply or contravention of the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999 [PFMA],” said Zwane.
Mogorosi was charged with wilful and negligence in the mismanagement of state monies.
The alternative charge he faced was the failure to comply with the rules and regulations which led to the multimillion-rand loss. — Sapa