The J.B. Marks municipality says an investigation is underway after R1.7 million appears to have been fraudulently removed from the municipal finance system.
According to Willie Maphosa, the council spokesperson, three employees are currently on suspension. ‘However, this should be seen only as a manner of allowing investigations to proceed and never as prejudicial to the employees concerned,’ he stressed. ‘In the light of the above, we will not comment further until the investigations have been finalised. Once they have been concluded, we will inform the media and the public of the way forward,’ he said.
The NW Hawks confirmed that they are investigating allegations of fraud and corruption within the J.B. Marks municipality. ‘We cannot divulge anything else at this stage,’ says the Hawks’ spokesperson, Brig. Hangwani Mulaudzi.
The Herald received a tip-off from a member of the public that the Hawks had conducted a raid two weeks ago. The source shed light on what had transpired. ‘R1.7 million was deposited into some business account in the Gauteng province. Thereafter, the recipient of the money cashed the amount, closed the bank account and deregistered the CIPRO (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) account.’
The source says the deposit from the municipal account was traced back to three computers belonging to the employees working in the finance department.
Maphosa could not explain how such a huge amount of money had gone through without the authorisation of the chief financial officer. He did not divulge what systems would be put in place to avoid this kind of fraud in future.