Nawaal Deane
Five years ago a senior accountant at the Department of Transport in Bisho was arrested and charged with attempting to defraud the department of close to R1-million.
Not only is the accountant, Nomathansanqa Sokutu, still employed in the department but no disciplinary action has been taken against her.
In June 1996 Sokutu, a deputy director of the accounts division, allegedly attempted to transfer R950?000 into the bank accounts of three fictitious companies by forging the signature of the head of department on letters authorising the transfer.
Department representative Lisa Mangcu was reported to have said that Sokutu made out a transfer request to First National Bank (FNB) attempting to direct departmental funds into the bogus accounts. She allegedly used the transfer because cheque forms were unavailable from the Department of Finance.
Mangcu said in an interview with a local newspaper that the staff at FNB in Port Shepstone became suspicious and alerted the department before any money could be paid out. “The transactions were stopped and we did not lose any money,” said Mangcu.
The Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM), which probes corruption and maladministration in the Eastern Cape, began investigating the case in December 1999 and discovered that Sokutu was still employed at the department and no disciplinary action had been taken against her.
The PSAM confirmed that Sokutu was arrested and charged with fraud in June 1996 in the Zwelitsha Regional Court. Two months later she was released on bail of R5?000, but the case was withdrawn in November 1996.
PSAM director Colm Allam says: “The charge sheet provides no explanation for why the case was withdrawn by the public prosecutor, it just says ‘no docket’.”
The criminal investigation has been delayed because the docket may have gone missing.
However, the PSAM confirms that Sokutu is employed in the finance section at the department as a state accountant and has not been suspended. “Given the allegations against her this is a rather disturbing state of affairs because she is still responsible for handling very large sums of money,” says Allam.
The PSAM says the department is in breach of regulations in the Public Service Act for failing to bring any disciplinary action against Sokutu.
In terms of the Act, as soon as a person is accused of misconduct the head of department can appoint an officer to investigate the matter. The head of department can charge even without a prior investigation having taken place and suspend the employee if the head is of the opinion that the charges are warranted.
The current head of the department, Zola Gebeda, says he is in no position to take action until he has concluded an internal investigation.
In a recorded interview with Allam, he says: “This is a matter that dates back to a couple of years. It involves two processes: one is criminal and the other is an internal disciplinary process.
‘I’m trying to separate these two processes because at some point it seems there was an indication or an intention to link these two and in fact that was an incorrect approach.”
This delay could have been avoided, says the PSAM. “Departments need to recognise that in order to launch a successful disciplinary action, they need not wait for the outcome of criminal investigations,” says Ntsika Somana, a researcher at the PSAM.
Gebeda says that the investigation is still ongoing and it is becoming very difficult to get the full details because the people who initially conducted the investigation are no longer involved in it.
“I have to inherit everything that went on before my time. It would be fair of me to do my own investigation and make absolutely sure that I understand what is going on and what has gone on so that the comment and the actions that I take are based on facts,” he says.
But the PSAM disagrees and says investigations should not be drawn out over such a long period. “With this particular case we see that disciplinary proceedings have had little progress, if any, with the official neither charged nor suspended departmentally,” says Somana.
According to the Public Service Act, investigations should have been initiated soon after the allegations were made and the whole disciplinary process should have been completed within two months.
“We see here that five years down the line the case seems very far from completion,” says Somana.
“This creates an impression that the provincial government will tolerate corruption,” says Allam.