Kouga municipality official in court for alleged tender fraud

A SENIOR Kouga municipal official appeared in court yesterday for allegedly rigging a tender process to receive kickbacks of nearly R50 000.

Thursheus Snyders was released on bail of R3 000 following a brief appearance in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court.

The case was postponed to October 3 for him to obtain legal representation.

Snyders, the senior administrative officer for auxiliary services at the Kouga Municipality, is accused alongside Werner Rust and his wife, Derval.

The state claims Snyders rigged a major municipal tender process to ensure it was awarded to the Rusts.

Snyders’s duties included assisting with the procurement of office equipment, obtaining quotations to complete requisitions and preparing evaluation reports for the bid evaluation committee.

He also had to get quotations for various goods and services, and if the value was over R10 000, he was to obtain three quotations from different suppliers listed on the Kouga municipal data base.

According to the charge sheet, Kouga had a contract with Gijima Holdings (Pty) Ltd for the supply, delivery and installation of telephones, and data networks.

The contract, which expired during August 2012, did not include maintenance of the physical towers on which the equipment was installed.

Werner Rust was employed at Gijima Holdings until his resignation in September 2011 and later joined the management team of his wife’s company, WOOA Telecomms CC.

The state claims that during his dealings with the municipality, Rust formed a close relationship with Snyders.

“From October 2011 onwards, the relationship between [Snyders, Telecomms and the Rusts] evolved into a generally corrupt one,” state advocate Ulrike de Klerk said.

Telecomms was registered as a service provider on the Kouga municipal data base on February 9 2012, with Derval listed as the contact person.

De Klerk said that during 2012, Snyders had approached Kouga municipal manager Sidney Fadi and advised him to enter into a 36-month contract with Telecomms regarding maintenance of the high sites.

“At that stage, Kouga made use of six sites, four of which belonged to the municipality, and the other two to Marks Farm and Westernaria Reservoir,” the charge sheet states.

Snyders allegedly produced a letter dated July 17 2012, and signed by Derval, claiming these two sites were the property of Telecomms, and that access to them was restricted.

De Klerk said while Telecomms had in fact been renting the sites, they had never actually belonged to them.

Based on the information before him, on July 20 2012, Fadi signed an interim contract with Telecomms until the specifications for a 36-month contract were finalised and advertised as per the formal tender process.

The state now claims Snyders failed in his duty to ensure a transparent and fair procurement procedure.