Scopa chases Hawks to reopen probe into missing R84m

The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) has buckled and opened an “inquest” into the R84 million in housing grants that disappeared from the Bojanala district municipality in the North West.

The Hawks in the province had closed their investigation, despite the disappearance of a massive chunk of the R134 million Human Settlements Development Grant “erroneously” deposited into the Bojanala municipality’s account in March last year.

The police closed the criminal investigation because the money had been paid back, but parliament’s watchdog, the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), would have none of it, charging that the money was recouped through Treasury withholding Bojanala district municipality’s equitable shares to make up for the missing millions.

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The Citizen learnt yesterday that the Hawks had reopened the case.

Its North West provincial spokesperson Captain Tlangelani Rikhotso said “the case in question was not reopened. We have, however, opened an inquiry, following new information which was brought to our attention”.

Provincial Scopa chair Job Dliso said the Hawks had always had all the information needed, which was why they were shocked when the case was closed a month after they handed it over.

Dliso said he had strongly protested the closing of the investigation because the Hawks had failed to follow up on who signed off the money and why; was proper procedure followed in releasing the funds; why it took the department a month to notice the error; and what happened to the R84 million that vanished from an irregular account especially opened to transfer the money.

Dliso said it was inexplicable that all four or five people responsible for releasing the funds could have made such a mistake and that it would take them a month to notice.

“The funds were not gazetted before they were released as required. Why bend the rules in order to make a mistake? This is a clear-cut case of criminality, and people must be brought to book and these funds recovered. That is our responsibility,” he said.

According to Dliso, Scopa has handed over to the Hawks in North West a total of 43 cases of corruption for investigation.

The watchdog body has since been assured that 34 of these cases have been finalised and will soon be processed.

These included a case where about R8 million was spent on a fence and guardroom for the Taung Hotel School, which the tourism department purchased for R5 million, as well as the irregular expenditure of R1.4 billion by the provincial education department.

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