Contact UsEkurhuleni officials nabbed for tender fraud
Facebook
RedditTwo senior Ekurhuleni officials and a local businessman have been arrested for alleged tender fraud worth over R32 million.
The three were arrested following a probe by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) into an IT tender issued by the City in 2008.
Velero David, owner of Meropa Sechabeng Technology; Nilesh Singh, former executive director of the munipality’s ICT department, and Andrew Mphushomadi, former chief IT architect at Ekurhuleni, were all charged with fraud and corruption.
Meropa Sechabeng Technology is an ICT consulting and integration company based in Bedfordview, with a focus on network solution design and implementation. In 2008, the company was awarded a tender by the Ekurhuleni municipality to design and implement an end-to-end solutions architecture system which included network integration and communications.
The three appeared in court last week and have been released on R50 000 bail each. The case was postponed until August 16.
The investigation began in October 2009, after the City requested the SIU to assist with the investigation following concerns of procurement irregularities which had been picked up by the City’s internal audit unit.
“This municipality has no room for fraud, corruption, and irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure, hence our decision to boost our internal systems and rope in agencies like the SIU in the fight against this evil,” said Ekurhuleni mayor, Mondli Gungubele.
He added that decisive action would be taken against the three and others implicated in fraud and corruption.
“We have now started a rigorous and aggressive process of putting measures in place that will help us in monitoring the activities and behaviour of our employees so that we can be able to mitigate corruption as it attempts to show off its ugly head. We shall continue to deal decisively against wrong-doers in this regard and these arrests are a clear proof of our intentions,” said Gungubele.
SIU head, Willie Hofmeyr, also noted that more arrests were expected over the next few weeks.
“This is a big success that was uncovered by the municipality’s own internal audit. As the SIU, we are dealing with major cases in the city that involve millions of Rands and more successes in this regard are imminent,” he said.
“Our investigations into alleged corruption in the city have exposed a lot of dirt in a number of departments, including IT and waste management. We are also doing our own internal investigations in various other departments, which we hope to conclude speedily,” said Gungubele.
