Johannesburg – The acting head of the Department of Health in the Free State, Godfrey Mahlatsi, 52, appeared at the Bloemfontein Magistrate Court today, where he was facing an allegation of contravening the Public Finance Management Act (PFM).
He was released on R5000 bail.
It is alleged that during the course of the regulatory audit in his department, the audit team from the Auditor-General requested information on certain payments to service providers and subsequently queried 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 to December 2015 for payments with regards to the service providers. It is further alleged that no evidence could be found whether the actual services were rendered by the service providers,” said Hawks spokesperson in Free State, Captain Christopher Singo.
Sunday World was told by Singo that the department was prejudiced and suffered a total loss of more than R8 million which was paid to the service providers.
“The matter was then reported to the police and a case was handed over to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation in Bloemfontein for further investigation which culminated in the suspect handing himself over to the investigators this morning. Mahlatsi was charged and 16 other accused were arrested in August last year. He was granted bail of R5 000. His matter was remanded to 14 March,” said Singo.
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