Part of the forensic audit carried out at the instruction of Parliament into ”Travelgate” — the parliamentary travel voucher scam — points to a potential legal nightmare for investigators to unravel.
At first glance, MPs’ travel vouchers have been misused through the booking of flights and cancellation of the tickets, followed by claims from Parliament. In some cases it is thought MPs got kickbacks, and a question mark hangs over the practices of at least four travel agencies.
The alleged scam also includes the apparent use of tickets by MPs taking flights in the names of parliamentarians from other parties.
However, with Parliament and the African National Congress silent on the details of the alleged fraud, it remains unclear whether the MPs are guilty of anything other than a lack of attention to detail.
For example, a prominent opposition MP’s name appears several times under a number of ANC MPs’ names for flights taken during 2002, according to a study by South African Airways (SAA) of travel vouchers processed by ITC Travel, an agency that has now been liquidated. The MP concerned could have been duped by the travel agent or a third party.
The size of Parliament’s claim against ITC alond stands at R4,5- million, according to documents in the Mail & Guardian’s possession.
In a similar case, an ANC MP’s name appears several times in the SAA audit, completed last year. His tickets were cancelled in numerous cases involving himself and members of his family. In February 2000 alone, the amounts totalled R50 000.
While 23 names, including 19 from the ruling ANC, were handed by the Scorpions to the presiding officers of Parliament, the names of members of the ANC and New National Party were not released.
In one case of an ANC woman MP — a member of the National Council of Provinces — a ticket to the value of R12 500 is under question, as it was used by a certain Mr van der Merwe. It is not clear whether she was party to the fraud, or if she herself was conned.
However, her name also appears in connection with the use of tickets by a number of other people, including a member of a small opposition party.
There is also an invoice involving the use of her travel voucher — intended for air, rail and bus travel only — in 2002 for the Polana Hotel in Maputo, Mozambique.
An Mpumalanga-based ANC MP’s name appears a number of times. In one batch of tickets, cancelled in April 2002, nearly R50 000 worth of tickets seems to have been irregularly used and the money claimed from Parliament. His surname, apparently used by family members, appears dozens of times. The same question mark hangs over who perpetrated the fraud.
A former National Assembly committee chairperson’s name appears a number of times for cancelled tickets, in one case involving a R5 373 claim from Parliament. It is also not clear in terms of the audit whether he was party to the fraud.
Of the MPs the Scorpions have invited to explain unauthorised luxury hotel stays, holiday travel and the hire of high-powered cars, six are no longer in Parliament, including one of the three named NNP members; one of the two DA members (an NNP defector who briefly represented the DA); and four of the 18 ANC MPs on the list.
Only one name has been publicly released by his party — that of Craig Morkel, who joined the DA last year from the NNP. Subsequently another former DA MP, Charles Redcliffe, who also defected from the NNP last year, confirmed being told he was on the Scorpions list. Both have offered to cooperate with the authorities.
”When the culprits are charged, I don’t think they’ll get much sympathy … It has really dented us,” said one ANC MP.
The party’s national spokesperson, Smuts Ngonyama, said bluntly that the scandal was ”an embarrassment to Parliament”. He added, however, that the institution itself had detected the scam and taken action.
The list was earlier submitted to Speaker Baleka Mbete. It is a preliminary one, but all the listed individuals will assist with the investigation, investigators believe. It is understood that offers of immunity from prosecution have helped unearth further details.
All three parties say full disciplinary action will be taken against anyone found guilty, but that until then innocence will be presumed and no one will be named.
DA chief whip Douglas Gibson said the matter was being mishandled. ”Parliament is selling itself grossly short. Nobody else but Parliament uncovered this.”
The speaker should have focused on this, Gibson said. ”There would have been a great deal more public sympathy.”