Cape Town - The suspects accused of defrauding the City of millions of rands were dealt another blow when the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court drastically increased their bail amounts on Thursday, according to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
NPA spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, said Jonathan van Rooy, the owner of JVR Construction CC, who through his alleged corrupt dealings with City officials received R46.9 million, asked the court to release him on R3 000 bail, while co-accused Koos Muller, a senior clerk at the City, who is alleged to have facilitated dealings and received R20 000 cash and other unknown cash amounts, also pleaded poverty and asked the court to release him on R3 000 bail.
A third accused, Bret Lucas, an administration officer at the City’s Finance Department in Bellville, who claims to run an NGO and earned R35 000 before his arrest, also asked the court to release him on R3 000 bail.
Ntabazalila said he received R20 000 for his alleged corrupt dealing, a sponsorship for his soccer team, and other amounts of money.
While Magistrate Ronel Oliver accepted the accuseds’ pleas to be released on bail, she dismissed their request to be released on the requested amounts, setting bail for 45-year-old Van Rooy at R20 000, at R10 000 for 52-year-old Muller, and at R10 000 for 47-year-old Lucas.
The State alleges that between November 2011 and September 2017, JVR Construction CC won a tender to repair and lay new water mains, fire hydrants and valves within the water and civil engineering component.
The repairs included scheduled and emergency call outs.
Whenever the company accepted work, the municipality would in turn request purchase orders in favour of the service provider.
“Muller’s responsibilities included ensuring that all invoices, supporting documents were for processing.
“Lucas’s responsibilities included capturing bills of quantities and invoice the SAP System. Between 2011 and 2017, 9 025 purchase orders were issued in favour of JVR Construction CC with a net value of more than R210 million.
“Van Rooy, Muller and Lucas devised and orchestrated a corrupt and fraudulent scheme where they created 2 438 fictitious purchase orders,” said Ntabazalila.
Muller created, requisitioned, and authorised the purchase orders with a value of R59.3 million, he said. “Out of that amount, 1 826 transactions valued at R46.9 million were fraudulent.
“Lucas physically brought a list of JVR Construction CC invoices to the expenditure clerk to process prior to the clerk receiving such invoices in the GRN Report.
““He misrepresented to the clerk that the company had carried out the work and monies were due for payment although he had no authority to do that.
“Because of these actions the municipality paid.”
Van Rooy apparently instructed his company’s employee to hand over R20 000 to Muller on July 1, 2015, for him to process the company’s invoice.
“Van Rooy also paid R20 000 for Lucas’ birthday expenses and handed him more money for his soccer club.
In a statement, the City said: “The City of Cape Town welcomes the arrests of two former City officials and a company director, which the City Forensics division reported to the Hawks for alleged fraudulent overbilling for road maintenance.
“The City supports a zero-tolerance approach to corruption and looks forward to a speedy prosecution process. The City will continue working with investigative authorities to ensure justice and accountability.”
The court heard that the investigation was finalised, and the matter will be transferred to the Bellville Commercial Crimes Court at the next court appearance on March 17.
Cape Times