13 suspects arrested for defrauding Free State department of R8 million
13 suspects have appeared before the Bloemfontein Regional Court on Monday, August 2, where they faced charges of fraud, forgery, uttering, money laundering, and corruption.
According to a police statement, a total amount of more than R8 million was paid to service providers. “As a result, the Department of Health was prejudiced and suffered a total loss of more than R8 million.”
After an investigation had been conducted by the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation in Bloemfontein, two government officials and five company directors were arrested on Friday, July 30. On Tuesday, August 3, six additional suspects were arrested.
The statement further says that during the course of the regulatory audit in the Department of Health, the audit team from the Auditor General requested information on certain payments to service providers and subsequently queried the procurement processes that were followed.
“As a result, an internal investigation followed whereby it was discovered that false or forged ‘requests for payment advices’ were submitted during the period of January 2011 to December 2015 for payments with regards to service providers,” the statement reads. It is also alleged that no evidence could be found whether the actual services were rendered by service providers.
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