Govt pays for soccer jaunt

The Eastern Cape health department may have been defrauded of as much as R10-million over the past three years in a scam run under cover of an air ambulance contract.

Spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the initial results of an investigation by a team that included accountants indicated the department had been grossly overcharged for services rendered by the company awarded the contract.

The department was not suggesting any wrongdoing on the part of the company, National Airways Corporation.

"But we are investigating possible collusion between some of our officials and their employees," he said.

Typical of the instances of overcharging was billing six hours for a flight from East London to Mthatha, and six hours back.

The department had suspended several of its officials in connection with the scam, and referred matters to the police for investigation, Kupelo said.

The province's head of emergency medical services, Shanks Maharaj, was suspended last year following an investigation into a R95 000 jaunt to Bloemfontein in an air ambulance at the department's expense.

The plane was used to fly officials to watch a Confederations Cup match between Spain and the United States. Maharaj resigned earlier this month, without having gone through a disciplinary enquiry.

Among eight other officials suspended last week, also in relation to the flight, are a provincial operations manager, three heads of ambulance centres, a secretary, two emergency fleet managers and the deputy manager of an ambulance centre. They would face a disciplinary hearing next week.

He said the department had identified 411 irregular contracts worth some R49 million awarded in this way in the 2008/9 and 2009/10 financial years.

Among them was one awarded to a security company to service about 15 clinics in the East London area, for which the company was now demanding payment of R164 000.