Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille.
- A company accused of inflating invoices for state funeral was awarded another contract to deliver services at the funeral of anti-apartheid stalwart Andrew Mlangeni.
- The company, Crocia Events, was paid R76 million for services delivered at three state funerals after allegedly inflating invoices.
- A criminal charge has been laid against the company.
The Public Works and Infrastructure Department says an events company accused of overcharging government to the tune of R76 million for the funerals of three ANC stalwarts, is not restricted from doing business with government.
This comes after Crocia Events secured a contract for the funeral of Andrew Mlangeni.
Mlangeni was laid to rest last week.
Department spokesperson Thamsanqa Mchunu said Crocia Events was paid R150 851.25 for services delivered at Mlangeni’s funeral.
“The award was made based on lowest price quoted and highest points scored. A total of 17 service providers were invited to submit quotations and only six responded and were evaluated. At this stage, the department has laid a criminal case against Crocia Events at the Pretoria Central SAPS in relation to the findings in the PWC report into the spending of previous state funerals,” Mchunu said.
Auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) were commissioned by the department’s anti-corruption fraud awareness unit to investigate allegations that Crocia Events had allegedly submitted inflated invoices for state funerals.
Crocia Events charged government R76 million for services delivered at the funerals of ANC stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, former cabinet minister Zola Skweyiya and former chief of state protocol Billy Modise – all of whom died in 2018.
READ | Massive overspending on state funerals probed
The company was paid more than R35 million for Madikizela-Mandela’s funeral.
PwC found invoiced items deemed contractually compliant only amounted to R4.7 million, while items that were invoiced but not listed on the tender pricing schedule came to just more than R17 million.
The quotation provided by Crocia exceeded the final specifications issued by the department by an excess amount of R11.4 million, PwC found.
On top of that, a management bill of R4 million was included in the final quote.
Crocia was paid R28.9 million for Skweyiya’s funeral, but items invoiced only amounted to about R4.3 million.
PwC furthermore found that, in respect of Modise’s funeral, Crocia was paid R11.4 million. The contractually compliant items invoiced only amounted to about R3.1 million.
Last week, Minister Patricia De Lille suspended the department’s director-general (DG), Sam Vukela, after he was implicated in funding scandals related to state funerals.
READ ALSO | Public Works DG suspended over role in inflated state funeral costs
Vukela was among the officials implicated in the PWC forensic investigation.
De Lille told News24 that there was no link between Crocia Events being contracted again and Vukela’s suspension.
She also confirmed Vukela would be paid while on suspension.
“He has vacated his office. The DG has not yet indicated whether he intends to challenge or oppose his precautionary suspension.”
In February, De Lille wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa to inform him of the investigation conducted by the department’s Governance, Risk and Corruption branch, and the PwC findings made against Vukela.
In March, Ramaphosa gave De Lille the go-ahead for action against Vukela.
