/ 27 February 2012

Five senior government officials nabbed in E Cape fraud blitz

Five high-ranking government officials in the Eastern Cape and Johannesburg have been arrested after an investigation into fraud and corruption involving R11-million, the Eastern Cape health department said on Monday.

“Their arrest follows an internal investigation which was later handed over to the police, relating to services procured but not rendered and proper processes not being followed,” said department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo.

A City of Johannesburg manager Lawrence Boya was arrested on Friday and had already appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court, Kupelo said.

He was a former superintendent general in the Eastern Cape health department.

The director and a deputy director of a health department in the impoverished province, plus two businessmen, were arrested in the Eastern Cape on Sunday.

They would appear in the East London Magistrate’s Court on Monday. The charges against them would be fraud and corruption charges involving an amount of R11.8-million, Kupelo said.

The arrests were part of a series of investigations into corruption and fraud taking place in the Eastern Cape.

The procurement was for business plans.

In a separate investigation, officials are working on the non-delivery of R11-million worth of hospital equipment that was procured, but not delivered.

“A few other officials are being investigated for that,” said Kupelo.

The department had also given the police information on a probe into a R13-million ambulance contract.

“We welcome the arrests and we want to say to all officials — ex and current — that fraud and corruption will never be tolerated by the department.

“We cannot afford a situation where money supposed to assist out people is lost — we cannot afford to lose one cent.”

In September, 42 staff members in the province’s health department were fired for a range of offences including theft and fraud.

An investigation also showed that more than 100 department officials owned companies that traded with the department.

A report by the auditing form PricewaterhouseCoopers found at least R45-million had been lost to fraud in the health department over the past years. — Sapa