Free State Department of Health, Head of Department; Godfrey Mahlatsi was arrested on Friday for allegedly breaching the Public Finance Management Act, 86(1) which reads “An accounting officer is guilty of an offense and a liable conviction to a fine, or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years if that accounting officer willfully or in a grossly negligent way fails to comply with the provision of section 38, 39 and 40”, this raises questions around the relations between government and chapter 9 institutions.
According to the Hawks in Free State’s spokesperson Christopher Songo, the 52-year-old Godfrey Mahlatsi handed himself over to authorities on Friday morning, in connection with alleged tender fraud amounting to over R8 million.
Mahlatsi appeared in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Friday as a result and was granted a R5000 bail. He is an accused, alongside 16 other officials, including his predecessor, Dr. David Motau.
Following Motau’s arrest on the 2nd August 2021, the former HOD was promptly put on precautionary suspension from his role as the registrar of the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) by the former Minister Mamoloko Kubayi, his lawyers then wrote to HPCSA President Prof Simon Nemutandani to appraise him on the criminal charges Motau is facing as former head of the Department of Health in Free State.
Following a cabinet reshuffle that saw Dr. Joe Phaahla appointed as Minister of Health his suspension was lifted, only to be placed on precautionary suspension again.
According to Singo, the alleged fraud took place between 2011 and 2015, involving several service providers. It’s alleged that the invoices the department used to pay out over R8 million to said service providers, were falsified and forged.
It is further alleged that there is no evidence that the service providers in question carried out the work after they received millions from the Health Department.
What is of great concern is both Motau and Mahlatsi became Heads of the Department at Health and Free State Provincial Treasury in 2013 only two years after the alleged fraud started which is reported to have happened between 2011 till 2015.
According to a source with intimate knowledge Dr Motau who was reporting to Mahlatsi at Treasury as Health was under administration reported this to Treasury and in turn Treasury reported this matter to AGSA for full investigation.
Free State Health was placed under administration from 17th March 2014 – 15th February 2018 and delegation of authority was still with Health.
Another source at Health known to Step Up News SA, said the former CFO was advised to open the case in 2016.
“As a result of this matter being reported, the former CFO was advised to open a criminal case in 2016.”
Step UP SA News has discovered that the DPCI confiscated computers and documents from Free State Health on the 2nd September 2019 and Godfrey Mahlatsi, the department’s HOD wrote a letter to Major General Kuby Moodley, the former Provincial Commissioner of DPCI on the 11th August 2021 to avail copies of confiscated documents for the department to initiate internal investigations and disciplinary processes.
The letter further states, “We further refer you to our previous letters dated 30th August 2019 in which it was explicitly indicated that upon finalization of your investigations, the said documents will be returned to the department.”
This was the 3rd year since Health had requested DPCI to hand over copies of the seized documents.
Correspondence in possession of the publication, show how Advocate Sephiri Moshodi, Director: Fraud and Anti-Corruption has been writing emails since 2019 requesting progress on investigations and confiscated documents. Copied in the email is AGSA’s Johan Maree. Moshodi makes is crystal clear, Dr Motau instructed him.
In response to Advocate Mosholi’s email requesting a meeting dated 30 June 2020, Brigadier Nico Greber accepts the meeting on advice of former Major General Kuby Moodley via zoom. The meeting was then scheduled for the 2nd July 2020 and it’s not clear at this stage what was discussed but what is of certainty is a year later, 2021 Health had not received the documents.
While AGSA was copied in the correspondence and frustration experienced by Health one would have thought, at least they would do better. Following the matter being reported to AGSA, the Free State Department of Health struggled to get the report from AGSA following their investigations after Dr. David Motau alleged asked AGSA to investigate.
A source from Health said Mahlatsi sent mail to AGSA’s Odwa Duda in September 2021 asking for documents in order to take the process forward to no avail.
“Hod Mahlatsi asked AGSA’s Odwa Duda to make the report available so the department can implement reccommendations but nothing came out it.”
Source continued, “With Dr Motau and Mahlatsi charged for breach PFMA 86(1) which itself is reliant on 38, 39 and 40 unfortunately 38 (g) will be key as the discovery of the fraudulent activities was reported and to date, AGSA has never made their report available including recommendations.”
Step Up SA News has learned that 4 officials have been charged by Free State Health and 1 has since resigned and their names are withheld.
A source from Free State Government said the threat to clean governance, is state institutions pulling in different directions before asking why it has taken DPCI 6 years to charge and prosecute including those who reported this matter.
What is also concerning is why has the HOD who approved these transactions not yet charged for his role between 2011 and 2013.
A senior auditor who spoke on condition of anonymity pointed this publication to the audit act.
“AGSA’s role and mandate is spelt out in the Public Audit Act and it is predominantly to make sure that government institutions comply with their policies and procedures and applicable laws of the country. Remedial action doesn’t take years to do. In fact, as the auditors do their job and before they leave, they have what’s called a close out meeting where they tell an organization their findings. Corrective action should be implemented immediately.”
This was echoed by Kimi MaKwetu, the late Auditor General in a newsletter on amended Audit Act.
“Make recommendations in the
audit report on how an Materal Irregularity(MI) should be
addressed, within a stipulated period
of time.
If these recommendations
have not been implemented by the
stipulated date, the AG must take
binding remedial action; and if the MI
involves a financial loss, issue a direc-
tive to the acounting officer or
accounting authority to quantify and
recover the loss from the responsible
person.
(iii) If the accounting officer or
accounting authority fails to imple-
ment the remedial action, including a
directive to quantify and recover a
financial loss, the AG must issue a
certificate of debt in the name of the
relevant accounting officer or
accounting authority. It is the respon-
sibility of the relevant executive
authority such as a minister, a
member of the executive council
(MEC) or a municipal council, to
recover the loss from the accounting
officer or authority.
These three steps come with many
checks and balances, giving the
public entity or department con-
cerned enough opportunity to fix the
flagged problem before it gets to the
issuing of a certificate of debt. That
action would only be taken if and
when those charged with govern-
ance fail to act.”
DPCI’s Lieutenat Kgoele did not respond to our questions while AGSA’s Khutsafalo Mnisi asked for extension twice and still failed to respond to our questions.
This is s developing story.
If you have news or tips please email us news@stepupsanews.co.za
Afternoon i would like to get help in publishing my story on the 5 years on failure by FS DOH to pay for the workdone in hospitals part of the money was paid to a contractor who did not do the work by using my reports and work completed by my company. They were paid more yhan 6 million