The Gauteng government has asked police to investigate the awarding of an information technology (IT) contract to Capstone 518 for the province’s ”Gauteng Shared Services Centre”(GSSC), finance MEC Paul Mashatile said on Friday.
The company Capstone 518 traded under the name Infotech Solutions Services and was contracted as sole provider of IT software services to the GSSC.
Mashatile took over as finance MEC last May. He found the agreement to be improper, cancelled it and ordered a forensic audit.
It was found that the CEO of the GSSC, Mike Roussos, was a 50% shareholder in the company which received R53-million worth of business from the GSSC. The other 50% was owned by Blue IQ investment holdings, owned by the Gauteng government.
The auditors found that the shareholders’ agreement was flawed and that Roussos had allegedly misrepresented himself regarding the equity holding in Capstone 518 and that there had been a conflict of interest.
The auditors recommended a criminal investigation and the Gauteng government has now handed the matter to the country’s law enforcement agencies, the MEC told reporters.
Mashatile said that no evidence was found that his predecessor, Jabu Moleketi, now deputy minister of finance, and Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa were aware of the alleged irregularities.
Mashatile said that Roussos’s counterpart at Blue IQ, Pradeep Maharaj, had resigned. – Sapa