Family accused of defrauding Saps of R88m appear in court

A family that allegedly defrauded the South African Police Service (Saps) in a multimillion-rand furniture tender appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday for a formal bail application.

Matthew Pillay, his wife Lisa and his mother, Devi Sigamoney, are accused of defrauding Saps of R88 million.

Charges

Pillay’s cousin, Nithianathan Govender and three of their employees, Bernard Mutimotema, Tinashe Moyo, and Betty Makinta and three companies, KJP Trades, Bohlale Traders and Swift Warehousing, have also been charged.

They are facing 330 charges, including fraud and money laundering, in Contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) spokesperson, Henry Mamothame, told The Citizen that the matter was rolled over to Monday for a formal bail application.

“The court roll couldn’t accommodate us because of the cases that were already on schedule.”

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Fraud

It is alleged that in March 2012, Pillay registered KJP Traders under his mother’s directorship in her knowledge, when he was the actual owner of the company.

The purpose of such action was for them to comply with the provisions of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act and the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PFA), which promote the meaningful participation of black people, particularly women, people with disabilities, small enterprises, and black designated groups.

In 2019, KJP Traders bid for a tender in the Saps to provide office furniture in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Gauteng, with Sigamoney meeting all the requirements as per the false registration of the company.

Collusion

Mamothame said the legal requirement for this tender was for the main contractor to sub-contract 30% to local companies.

“To this effect, Pillay and his wife colluded with employees of KJP to register companies, which in turn would be reflected as local beneficiaries from the main contract. These companies, which had no assets, were registered under false addresses in all four provinces.”

Mamothame said a further collusion ensued when one of the companies which was registered under Makinta also bid for the main contract to disadvantage other bidders.

“In their bid, KJP Traders misrepresented their VAT status in their documents, misrepresented ownership of the company to gain an advantage over other bidders by having an elderly woman as the sole director and also misrepresented information of the sub-contractors, including their addresses.

“Through this collusion, the company was awarded a three-year contract valued at approximately R88 million by the Saps,” Mamothame said.

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