Three suspects aged between 39 and 42 will appear before the Bizana Magistrates’ Court tomorrow, 23 August 2021 for allegations of catering fraud and money laundering after their arrest on 20 August 2021.
It is alleged that in 2015, procurement of catering services for people attending a roadshow held at Mzamba Cluster was made. The company that is reported to have been appointed for the catering services was to be paid R14 000 for services rendered and the payment was made on 30 April 2015 into the company account.
It was later established that a further payment was made to the same service provider on the same day in a different account belonging to an employee of the Alfred Nzo Municipality.
The discrepancy identified led the municipality to do a further examination into the municipality payments dating back from 1 July 2014 to 30 April 2015 where further discrepancies were uncovered.
Two companies were double paid more than R22 000 on 19 November 2014 and more than R30 000 on 7 April 2015 respectively. The fraudulent payments are reported to have been made to the financial controller and library assistant within the municipality respectively.
The complaint was lodged with the Mthatha based Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation for probe hence the arrest of the trio.