From managers with fake matric qualifications to ghost nurses and companies that charge R500 for a single soccer ball.
These are some of the scandals contained in more than 40 forensic reports on misconduct and corruption committed by staffers at various government departments in Gauteng from as far back as 2012. The reports were recently released by premier Panyaza Lesufi's office after they had been held by the departments over the years.
Lesufi said the departments were only now beginning to act on the investigators' recommendations. Lesufi has since confirmed that these reports resulted in 88 officials facing consequence management and 55 cases being referred to law enforcement.
In one of the cases focusing on the premier's office, its director of the security and risk management department, was found guilty of nepotism and abusing state cars between 2015 and 2016.
The employee failed to disclose that his son, whom he hired into the premier's office, was also working for Sakhile Ezweni, a security company owned by socialite Leroy Sidambe, which also received a tender from the same office.
The director also hired his son's friends to work for the state even though their registration with the Private Security Industry Regulator (PSiRA) had expired.
They also could not prove they had a matric qualification.
Investigators also learnt that the director and his son's friends shared the same addresses as another security company. Sowetan understands that the director has since retired.
Some of their recommendations were that we should implement lifestyle audits for officials who are working in the supply chain management system.
— Lesufi's spokesperson, Vuyo Mhanga
In another matter at Weskopies Psychiatric Hospital in Pretoria West, workers were found to have been negligent for paying for overpriced quotes from a company that supplied them with building material and other goods between 2016 and 2017. The company collected R30,800 for supplying the hospital with paint brushes and balls, however the same items cost R8,000 at normal retailers.
The company charged the hospital R500 for a single soccer ball that ordinarily costs R129. It also billed the hospital R3,200 for a litre of Arnica oil, which retails for R249.
The investigators also probed allegations that a manager in the administration at Leratong Hospital, West Rand, was not qualified for her job despite working her way up the ladder.
Investigators found out that the matric certificate she submitted when she first applied at the hospital was fraudulent. She lied about having matriculated in 1994.
“The Gauteng department of education [GDE] provided us with statements of results which revealed that she wrote grade 12 exams on many occasions; however, she never passed. GDE officials noted that a forged exam number was on the matric certificate. The certificate format is not the approved certificate format which were issued during 1994. Further scrutiny of the certificate revealed that it is not barcoded and does not have a certificate number,” read the report.
The investigators recommended that the department lodge a criminal case against her.
They further instructed the hospital to take disciplinary action against the hospital's shortlisting committee for tweaking the requirements for 12 posts for cleaners to favour people from the West Rand.
Investigators also uncovered irregularities at Kalafong Hospital in Tshwane, where 12 cleaners were hired in 2016. No pre-screening was performed on the candidates to ascertain their criminal history and qualifications. Four of the appointed cleaners lied about their education and had forged signatures of principals of schools they claimed to have studied at.
The department of health also lost thousands of rand through ghost workers created by hospital employees.
A human resource practitioner at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg, was identified as the culprit who used the file of a recently retired Dr Mokgale to create a fake doctor who cost the department R169,000 in salaries, which were deposited in employee's bank account.
Investigators could not find the original file of Dr Mokgale.
“This highlighted a control weakness in the safekeeping of the employees' personal information, thereby creating a fraud risk of identity theft,” said the report.
In another matter, the investigators instructed criminal cases to be launched against two employees in Tshwane for allegedly being behind the creation of three ghost nurses and a doctor at Dark City Clinic in Ekangala and at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
Lesufi's spokesperson, Vuyo Mhanga, said the reports were released to create a capable state.
“We have formed an ethics and advisory committee that must continue to advise the government on where we are vulnerable and where we are weak. Some of their recommendations were that we should implement lifestyle audits for officials who are working in the supply chain management system. Some of the officials might not [currently] be in the employ of the state, so we might not have the jurisdiction to take them to the DC, but those that have taken money from the state, we then find ways to recoup the money,” said Mhaga.
He said some of the ways they'd deploy are to recoup the lost money from the pension fund of the implicated workers.
“With the ones that have left the system, when they resign, we then try to freeze their pension funds so that they are not able to touch them,” he added. – Additional reporting by Jeanette Chabalala
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