THE City of Cape Town has vowed to clamp down on fraud and corruption, a task for which it has just established a forensic investigations department.
Solly Malatsi, spokesman for mayor Patricia de Lille, said the city had taken proactive action to identify criminal activity.
"As part of a multifaceted corporate governance structure within the City of Cape Town, a forensic department has been established," Malatsi said.
The city continuously evaluated its systems and control measures to ensure that weaknesses or gaps were eradicated, he said.
Malatsi said they had found that a small minority of people had attempted to defraud the city and its ratepayers.
"We have a number of cases where prospective service providers to the city attempt to gain contracts or tenders by misrepresenting their historical disadvantaged status."
The importance of internal controls underpinned by information received from concerned ratepayers had led the city to uncover a crime syndicate that had defrauded the city by submitting false claims and bank account numbers for service refunds.
Malatsi said they were continuing their investigation.
However, by acting swiftly the city had prevented losses of about R800,000.
The city's forensic department was actively engaged with the special commercial crime unit and the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations (Hawks).
Malatsi said they valued the assistance of community members in the fight against crime.
"A number of community members recently came forward with information that a former city employee demanded money from them in order to illegally allocate them housing."
The city investigated all these claims and this resulted in the conviction of former city employee Nomkhitha Matinisi.
Matinisi was found guilty of eight counts of corruption in court and was sentenced to five years in jail.
Cape to get tough on corruption
THE City of Cape Town has vowed to clamp down on fraud and corruption, a task for which it has just established a forensic investigations department.
Solly Malatsi, spokesman for mayor Patricia de Lille, said the city had taken proactive action to identify criminal activity.
"As part of a multifaceted corporate governance structure within the City of Cape Town, a forensic department has been established," Malatsi said.
The city continuously evaluated its systems and control measures to ensure that weaknesses or gaps were eradicated, he said.
Malatsi said they had found that a small minority of people had attempted to defraud the city and its ratepayers.
"We have a number of cases where prospective service providers to the city attempt to gain contracts or tenders by misrepresenting their historical disadvantaged status."
The importance of internal controls underpinned by information received from concerned ratepayers had led the city to uncover a crime syndicate that had defrauded the city by submitting false claims and bank account numbers for service refunds.
Malatsi said they were continuing their investigation.
However, by acting swiftly the city had prevented losses of about R800,000.
The city's forensic department was actively engaged with the special commercial crime unit and the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigations (Hawks).
Malatsi said they valued the assistance of community members in the fight against crime.
"A number of community members recently came forward with information that a former city employee demanded money from them in order to illegally allocate them housing."
The city investigated all these claims and this resulted in the conviction of former city employee Nomkhitha Matinisi.
Matinisi was found guilty of eight counts of corruption in court and was sentenced to five years in jail.
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