At least 11 suspects have been implicated in a tender scam that cost the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality an estimated R26 million.
On Thursday, five former Nelson Mandela Bay municipal officers, three company directors and three other alleged accomplices appeared before the Gqeberha New Law Court on money laundering charges.
Nelson Mandela Bay municipality thrust into tender scam allegations
According to provincial police spokesperson Captain Yolisa Mgolodela, the matter involves a tender contract that was signed by the metro’s public health directorate in 2014.
“It is alleged that in 2014, Public Health Directorate within Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality awarded a tender to the service srovider Milongani Eco Consulting CC to do environmental impact assessment. The contract is reported to have been for a duration of three years expiring in July 2017. The tariff rate is said to have been R350-00 per hour,” Capt. Mgolodela noted in a statement.
Existing forensic evidence shows that in a span of 24 hours after the contract was signed, an invoice of R1 million was immediately submitted and paid by the municipality to Milongani Eco Consulting.
A financial paper trail shows that right after the first tranch was released, millions more were invoiced for services that, according to the police, were never rendered.
The total running costs of this alleged money laundering scam ran into an estimated R26 million.
“It is said that even interns within the municipality with expired contracts were also paid out of this contract,” Mgolodela added.
At this time, the police have not indicated if more alleged benefactors of this tender scam will be added to the case docket.
Eastern Cape police head Major General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya applauded the work of the investigators in unveiling this deep-rooted scourge of corruption.
“He reiterated that those funds could have been used to curb the unemployment rate by establishing projects that could help in putting food on the table of the underprivileged,” the statement concluded.
