Besties in BEE kickback scandal
CFO, pal accused of defrauding Free State agriculture of R200m
● Allegations of a forged BEE certificate, fraudulent credentials and a string of payments to a senior government official are under investigation in a corruption case that led to a Bloemfontein court granting an order to attach assets worth R249m.
A former chief financial officer of the Free State department of agriculture, Seipati Dhlamini, is accused of conspiring with her purported friend, businesswoman Malikomo Mohapi, to fraudulently score a contract worth more than R200m — and allegedly receiving kickbacks when payments were made.
Investigators said damning evidence against the two was uncovered when authorities conducted an analysis of bank accounts during the investigation into the controversial Estina Dairy project.
This led to the discovery that the appointment of Superior Quality Trading — a company owned by Mohapi — had been “unlawful and irregular”.
The two were arrested last year, and after further investigations the high court in Bloemfontein issued an order for the provisional restraint of realisable property belonging to the two and a company belonging to Mohapi, which is expected to recover R249m of taxpayers’ money.
A submission by the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) to the court lifted the lid on a web of alleged corruption that took place in 2014.
The AFU financial investigation concluded that Dhlamini and Mohapi had used their friendship to fleece the state.
Their scheme, the AFU said, included Dhlamini approving payments to Mohapi’s company.
A few days before or after such payments from the department were processed, Mohapi would make payments into Dhlamini’s personal bank account, the AFU alleged.
Contacted for comment on Friday, Dhlamini said the truth would come out in her criminal trial, which is set for November this year.
“The case is going to court running from 1 November until the 26th of November, you can come. All I can say is that it is strange that I was arrested in July last year and my assets are attached only a year later, contrary to my Estina case wherein my assets were attached immediately when I was arrested,” said Dhlamini, who declined to comment further.
Mohapi said: “I do not know where the R249m comes from because I know of a different amount, so I am confused.
“In fact, do not mention Seipati [Dhlamini] when asking me those questions. Go write about whatever you know from whoever told you,” said Mohapi, before dropping the call.
The AFU said the process that led to the awarding of a tender to Superior Quality in 2014 was marred by irregularities.
Chief among these was that Mohapi submitted what the state said is a fraudulent broad-based BEE certificate. The state accuses Dhlamini of facilitating the appointment “well knowing that the BBBEE certificate was forged”.
Dhlamini, along with bid evaluation and bid adjudication committees, ignored a department official who told them before they appointed Superior Quality that the BBBEE certificate was fake.
All I can say is that it is strange that I was arrested in July last year and my assets are attached only a year later Seipati Dhlamini
Do not mention Seipati [Dhlamini] when asking me those questions. Go write about whatever you know from whoever told you
Malikomo Mohapi
The fraud did not end there, the AFU claimed: Mohapi used someone else’s credentials and CV without their consent to enable her company to get appointed.
During the flawed appointment process, Dhlamini disclosed her friendship with Mohapi — though not that it was close. Mohapi did not disclose the friendship at all.
“Certain services were also not adequately provided by [Mohapi] and [Superior Quality Trading], which led to financial losses to the department because full payments were made by the department’s officials although the services were not fully completed,” the AFU submitted to court.
“The illegal contract price was approximately R200m, which was paid to Superior Quality Trading over a period of time.”
According to the AFU, the rot was allowed to continue because Dhlamini was receiving gratification from Mohapi.
Superior Quality Trading allegedly made 15 separate payments to Dhlamini, amounting to a total of R267,000 in 2014, a year in which the department parted with millions to Mohapi’s company.
The AFU said that most of the payments to the departmental CFO by the service provider were disguised as “Refund TelkomSA”.
“These payments were made before and during the operation of the contract to [Dhlamini] who was the CFO of the department at the time. These were undue benefits paid to an official of the state.
“This shows that [Mohapi] and [Superior Quality Trading] were in a corrupt relationship with [Dhlamini] over a period of time in her position as the CFO of the department who certainly would have had an influence in the appointment of Superior Quality Trading in this multimillion-rand contract.”
Among the payments the AFU found too coincidental to be above board were a R1.7m payment to Mohapi’s company made by the department on July 10 2014, which was followed by a R43,000 payment to Dhlamini by the company eight days later.