STATE RED FLAGS R3.8m ‘TECH FRAUD’
Ex-manager of national company investigated after
A national information technology company is at the centre of an investigation over the payment of at least R3.8-million in a possible fraud against the provincial treasury.
Datacentrix does business with the provincial treasury, the Eastern Cape Gambling Board, the Liquor Board and several municipalities.
The modus operandi was allegedly to submit fraudulent invoices for nonexistent “services” offered by Datacentrix.
Eastern Cape government spokesman Sonwabo Mbananga confirmed to the Daily Dispatch that the government blew the whistle after a company official allegedly defrauded taxpayers of R3.8-million.
“We raised the red flag from fraudulent claims that treasury received from Datacentrix, and this led to the resignation of their manager. “A forensic investigation which we have launched will reveal exactly how much money has been lost due to this fraud.”
Mbananga said the preliminary investigation had uncovered that the company duped treasury into paying the R3.8million.
He said Datacentrix had contracts with the office of the premier, department of social development and “other” government entities.
The Midrand-based company has offices in East London and Port Elizabeth, and IT offers ICT solutions to the Eastern Cape government.
A Datacentrix manager resigned on June 22 amid an investigation into “misconduct”. Datacentrix CEO Ahmed Mohamed said they would report the alleged fraud to the police.
“What I can confirm is that there is evidence of fraudulent activity that may impact Datacentrix. It is still not clear who is involved and we certainly do not have any evidence that government agencies or departments were involved or that they were defrauded.
“We will be opening a case of fraud and it would be up to the police to investigate further.
“We will cooperate fully with the police in this matter.
“We will merely report the ostensibly fraudulent activity that we uncovered,” said Mohamd.[The company official] resigned when we initiated the investigation.
“The investigation resulted from an anonymous tip-off.”
Yesterday, the company official denied any knowledge of the allegations against her and accused the company of organising a smear campaign against her for speaking out against its unfair labour practices. She said the reason she resigned was that she could not tolerate being treated like a “suspect” by a company which had previously accused her of stealing office furniture – which, she said, they later found during an audit.
In an interview in her East London home, she said Datacentrix had given her the worst eight years of her life. On Monday she took the company to the CCMA for constructive dismissal, discrimination and unfair labour practice.
She said tensions had reached boiling point between her and her employers after the company hired an official at her level but at a salary three times more than hers.
She said that during the eight years at the company’s Berea offices, she had never enjoyed leave without having to run to the office to check, clear and approve work. “I gave birth to my son in 2013 on a Monday and two days later in the morning I was at work because of the kind of people I worked for.” She said between December 2017 and April 2018 she even had to work from her hospital bed. She underwent six operations in those five months.
Her husband interjected: “The doctor asked me ‘how can I allow my wife to continue wor king in conditions like that?’”
The Dispatch has seen the CCMA documents. Responding to the allegations about discrimination against the woman, Mohamed said: “It is not our policy, practice or company culture to discriminate against anyone. “If she has any evidence of this we will investigate and take the necessary action.
“We will not tolerate any victimisation or any form of discrimination.”
We raised the red flags from fraudulent claims that treasury received from Datacentrix