Joburg city housing official suspended for alleged fraud

A City of Johannesburg official‚ employed as a bookkeeper within the Department of Housing‚ was suspended on Wednesday for allegedly fraudulently manipulating quotations from service providers.

“In June 2017‚ Merchant Payment suspected that there was something wrong with the quotations submitted to the Department of Housing. The service providers were then contacted to verify the authenticity of the quotations submitted; they denied any knowledge of the prices mentioned in the quotations.

“The matter was then referred to the City’s Group Forensic and Investigation Services (GFIS) for further investigation. “An investigation by GFIS found that in call for the provision of catering services‚ requested by the official‚ two service providers submitted quotes of R5‚550 and R19‚000‚ respectively‚” Mashaba said in a statement.

He said it was alleged that the official inflated the cheapest quote to R21‚945. This resulted in the R19‚000 quotation being the cheapest one received. The same quote was inclusive of VAT‚ which the company was not registered for. “The official contravened the Supply Chain Management policy and committed a criminal office. A case was opened at the Hillbrow Police Station.”

Mashaba said he was disappointed to learn that there were still officials who were still involved or engaging in corrupt activities.

“This is despite the fact that we continuously educate employees about fraud and corruption. “Those service providers found to have been involved in this scam‚ will also face the full might of the law‚” he warned.

He encouraged service providers to submit their quotations in a secure PDF format‚ saying this would make it difficult for unscrupulous officials to manipulate them. Most service providers currently submit their quotations in formats which can be easily manipulated‚ he added.