Parliament has laid criminal charges against certain travel agencies in respect of air travel services they have provided for its members.
”This follows repeated and unsuccessful requests to travel agents for details and documentation to support the invoices they submitted,” Secretary of Parliament Sindiso Mfenyana said in a statement on Tuesday.
He said Commercial Crime Unit police and forensic auditors had retrieved documentation from suspected travel agencies and certain of their staff.
Information was also being retrieved from their computer systems.
”The investigation has not yielded any evidence indicating fraudulent acts by members of Parliament,” Mfenyana said.
His announcement follows a statement issued last week in which he said Parliament was scrutinising invoices sent by various travel agencies after finding ”discrepancies” between some of the amounts billed and the actual cost of the tickets.
Mfenyana said at the time there had been attempts by some of the agencies to apply pressure on Parliament and its staff not to pursue the investigation, because, they claimed, further revelations ”would discredit Parliament and/or its members”.
On Tuesday, he said certain of the travel agencies implicated in fraudulent transactions had expressed a willingness to provide relevant information and documentation, on condition they were not implicated in any legal proceedings that might follow.
However, the presiding officers had issued instructions that Parliament will not offer indemnity from prosecution to any person or party involved in the alleged fraud.
”In order to expedite the investigation, I instructed the investigating team, which includes private forensic auditors, to assist the police to obtain all relevant documentation.
”The results of the investigation, including the forensic audit, will be made public as soon as circumstances permit,” Mfenyana said. – Sapa