Three suspects, aged between 39 and 42, will appear before the Bizana Magistrate’s Court today, August 23 on
allegations of catering fraud and money laundering, following their arrest on
August 20.
It is alleged that in 2015 a
procurement of catering services for people attending a road show at
Mzamba Cluster was made. The company that is reported to have been appointed
for the catering services was to be paid R14 000 for services rendered and the
payment was made on April 30, 2015 into the company account.
It was later established that a
further payment was made to the same service provider on the same day in a
different account, belonging to an employee of the Alfred Nzo District Municipality.
The discrepancy identified led the
municipality to do a further examination into the municipal payments dating
back from 1 July 2014 to 30 April 2015 where further discrepancies were
uncovered.
Two companies were double paid more
than R22 000 on November 19, 2014 and more than R30 000 on 7 April 2015
respectively. The fraudulent payments are reported to have been made to the
financial controller and library assistant within the municipality
respectively.
The complaint was lodged with the
Mthatha based Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation for probe hence the
arrest of the trio.
