A government agency's accounts manager is embroiled in disciplinary action over alleged fraud involving R4.5m.
The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS), which reports to the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, has also reported the manager to the police and the commercial crimes unit is investigating.
Ebrahim Patel, the trade minister, revealed the information in response to a parliamentary question from DA MP Dean Macpherson.
Patel said the NRCS launched disciplinary proceedings against the manager on March 15. “Subsequently, the NRCS-appointed Initiator of the disciplinary process passed on due to Covid-19 and another initiator has now been appointed.”
The disciplinary hearing resumed in September but an employee representative fell ill during the proceedings and the matter was postponed to October, then to November.
“A criminal case was opened on March 25 at Sunnyside police station and was transferred to the Commercial Crimes Unit on April 12,” said Patel.
He said the employee was accused of processing fraudulent refunds.
“The NRCS receive funds from clients for services rendered or levies. In some instances, the clients fail to indicate or include the correct reference number,” he said.
“These funds are treated as unallocated until they are traced and allocated to the correct client account.
“The employee allocated some of these funds to third parties with the intention to refund them to these fraudulent clients that were not the respective depositors of the funds.
“The wrongly allocated funds were subsequently refunded to third parties that were not the depositors of the said funds, thereby defrauding the NRCS.”
TimesLIVE
Accounts manager in hot water over R4.5m missing from government agency
Image: 123RF/Olivier Le Moal
A government agency's accounts manager is embroiled in disciplinary action over alleged fraud involving R4.5m.
The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS), which reports to the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, has also reported the manager to the police and the commercial crimes unit is investigating.
Ebrahim Patel, the trade minister, revealed the information in response to a parliamentary question from DA MP Dean Macpherson.
Patel said the NRCS launched disciplinary proceedings against the manager on March 15. “Subsequently, the NRCS-appointed Initiator of the disciplinary process passed on due to Covid-19 and another initiator has now been appointed.”
The disciplinary hearing resumed in September but an employee representative fell ill during the proceedings and the matter was postponed to October, then to November.
“A criminal case was opened on March 25 at Sunnyside police station and was transferred to the Commercial Crimes Unit on April 12,” said Patel.
He said the employee was accused of processing fraudulent refunds.
“The NRCS receive funds from clients for services rendered or levies. In some instances, the clients fail to indicate or include the correct reference number,” he said.
“These funds are treated as unallocated until they are traced and allocated to the correct client account.
“The employee allocated some of these funds to third parties with the intention to refund them to these fraudulent clients that were not the respective depositors of the funds.
“The wrongly allocated funds were subsequently refunded to third parties that were not the depositors of the said funds, thereby defrauding the NRCS.”
TimesLIVE
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