Staff Reporter
The Free State Department of Health’s acting head of department, Godfrey Mahlatsi, has been released on R5 000 bail after he appeared before the Bloemfontein Magistrates Court on charges of contravention of the Public Finance Management Act.
He handed himself over to the police on Friday morning before going to court with his legs shackled later in the day.
Mahlatsi previously served as an accounting officer at the health department and during that time he allegedly paid R8 million to companies which submitted false and forged invoices for services that were never rendered.
His arrest followed an internal probe that was instigated after a team from the Auditor-General’s office, during the course of a regulatory audit at the department, queried certain payments to service providers.
The probe revealed that false or forged requests for payment advice were submitted between January 2011 to December 2015.
According to the National Prosecution Authority’s Free State spokesperson Phaladi Shuping, Mahlatsi is facing 44 counts of contravention of the Public Finance Management Act after he allegedly failed to prevent wasteful expenditure incurred by the department.
His case has been postponed to March 14 when he will appear together with 16 other accused persons who were arrested in August last year.
They include former head of department at the Free State health department, David Motau.