Thirteen people who have allegedly defrauded the Department of Health in the Free State of R8.7 million have been granted bail in the Bloemfontein regional court.
They are facing charges of fraud, forgery, money laundering and corruption.
Seven accused were arrested on Friday while six were arrested earlier today including the former Free State Health HOD, David Motau.
Ten accused were released on R2000 bail while the other three accused were granted R5000 bail each.
Hawks spokesperson Christopher Singo says the thirteen accused will appear again on the 22 of September.
“It is alleged that during the course of the regulatory audit in the Department of Health, the audit team from the Auditor General requested information on certain payments to service providers and subsequent to query the procurement processes that were followed. As a result, an internal investigation followed whereby it was discovered that false or forged requests for payment advices were submitted during the period of January 2011 until December 2015 for payments. It is further alleged that no evidence could be found whether the actual services were rendered by the service providers,” says Hawks spokesperson Christopher Singo.
