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SIU reveals shocking details uncovered in its ongoing probe of State Attorney office

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Members of Parliament’s Justice committee have reacted with shock at revelations of an ongoing investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) that officers and officials from the State Attorney office have fleeced the taxpayers of billions of rands.

The SIU briefed the committee on its ongoing investigations into the office of the State Attorney, the Master’s Office and infrastructure projects.

One Eastern Cape advocate overcharged the state by R31 million.

A delegation from the SIU disclosed that staggering amounts of money are fleeced from the state.

The head of  SIU, Andy Mothibi, says they have found tax fraud, over charging and double claims running into billions. During their investigation they found that intermediaries that weren’t appointed via the required processes have been used.

“One intermediary has already charged R123 million for services purportedly rendered. The amount could be more,” he says.

When it comes to medical claims, eight criminal charges of fraud to the value of R115 million have been registered. Mothibi says they have also picked up trends where one attorney has made several claims of R15 million.

“There is an attorney, Nonxuba Inc; he features several times from R15m that attorney given evidence, he was arrested, appeared in court, given R80, 000 bail, phoned sheriff in GP. We looked at claims  which we found also to be fraudulent,” adds Mothibi.

Members of the committee were shocked.

“Obviously, one is not only shocked at degree and intensity of collusions taking place. I am horrified. We all knew the problems were big, but this is quite breathtaking, dealing with sick society, not slowing down. You would expect that with Zondo everyday, (that) would be a deterrent. From where I am, I am scared that this corruption is deep. If advocates can be so corrupt, then the community is in trouble.”

Mothibi says over the past year, the SIU has seen an increase of nearly 80% in proclamations, but not the accompanying skills or staff.

He asked the committee for support to get more skills

“We only have three forensic accountants. It’s not enough. We are expected to trace the money, so we need the forensic accountants. We have done a lot of quantification. They are stretched. Doing what we can. You give the team a balance sheet, ask them to interpret so we know where the money has gone. We need super accounting skills; forensic accountants. Cyber people, especially with growth of proclamations, won’t deliver appropriately. ”

When it comes to the building of courts, it was found that a budget of R3 billion was allocated for the construction of eight courts, but only four were built for double the price between 2018 and 2019.

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