Staff Reporter
The Bloemfontein Magistrates court has sentenced the former head of the Department of Human Settlements in the Free State to a total of 15 years for corruption and contravening the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
Mpho Moses Mokoena, 61, however, escaped jail after pleading guilty to the offences that took place during the 2010/2011 financial year.
Magistrate Rashied Mathews had sentenced Mokoena to 10 years’ imprisonment for corruption and five years for contravening the PFMA but these were wholly suspended after he pleaded guilty in terms of Section 105 of the Criminal Procedure Act.
A statement issued by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) says Mokoena, in his plea, stated that the department advertised a tender in 2010 for building RDP houses for the community.
The national Department of Human Settlements had allocated approximately R1.4 billion to the provincial department for the construction of the low-cost housing the Free State.
The tender was however cancelled.
The department was expected to utilise the allocated funds in the same financial year for the purposes they were allocated for.
The funds were to be withdrawn by national treasury if they were not used.
The department failed to utilise the allocated budget for the 2010/2011 financial year and presented an expenditure recovery plan on how it would use the allocated funds.
This, however, was not in accordance with the business plan of the Free State Department of Human Settlements.
The minister and Members of the Executive Council told the department that their expenditure recovery plan was not accepted and that the department was not permitted to use the balance of the allocated budget for the recovery plan but the department went ahead and authorised the advance payment of at least R500 million worth of building equipment and material for projects that still had to commence.
“The state alleges that the advance payment of equipment and material formed part of a fraudulent scheme which was conceived by officials in the department to disburse substantial sums of money to selected suppliers and contractors in order to avoid the funds becoming unspent conditional allocation,” read part of the NPA statement.
The National Department of Human Settlement and National Treasury had threatened that the unspent allocation should be returned to the National Revenue Fund, to be allocated to provinces with better spending records.
“In the face of that threat, the department proceeded to implement the scheme, disbursing more that R500 million from its conditional grant allocation over 2010/2011 financial year with no lawful cause for the payment.
“The contractors did not carry out the construction work or only performed portions thereof. The suppliers did not supply materials to the department or supplied only a portion. The suppliers were not entitled to receive payments where materials were not supplied and contractors should not have been paid where houses where not built,” said the NPA.
Mokoena pleaded guilty to both counts and admitted that he failed to prevent unauthorised, irregular and fruitless expenditure and losses resulting from criminal conduct.
He was sentenced to wholly suspended sentences on condition that he is not found guilty of similar offences during the period of suspension.