IT fraud at water affairs department

SAPA

Sapa, or the South African Press Association, is a non-governmental news agency that was established in 1938. Sapa provides all forms of media, and is...

Full Profile

E-mail

An information technology (IT) consultant will appear in court next month for allegedly attempting to steal millions of rands from the water affairs department.

“The department has laid criminal charges against a consultant who attempted to steal R12.80 million from the department’s account last year,” spokeswoman Linda Page said.

Pono Senokoana allegedly tried to transfer large sums of money into his personal bank account on different occasions, but only managed to get R2.84 million before he was caught.

Employed by a company called T-Systems, he was appointed to work on the payment systems, but managed to gain additional access which allegedly enabled him to transfer funds. The department’s finance unit spotted the wrongdoing.

Senokoana was arrested last year and released on bail. He last appeared before the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on June 9 on fraud charges.

The case was postponed to July 28.

T-Systems statement

With regards to the issue of alleged fraud committed by a T-Systems South Africa contractor at the Department of Water Affairs, T-Systems South Africa can confirm that Bokhutlo (Pona) Senokwane was under contract with T-Systems South Africa and was not an employee of T-Systems South Africa.

Mr. Senokwane was originally contracted by CSIPER Consulting, a subsidiary of arivia.kom, in March 2009 with a contract extension until July 2010. T-Systems South Africa bought arivia.kom in January 2010.

The alleged incident was first reported by the Department of Water Affairs to T-Systems South Africa on 8th of June 2010. The individual concerned was immediately removed from site, and then suspended on the 9th of June 2010 for the period up to 31 July 2010 when his contract came to an end. His contract was not renewed for any further period.

We have cooperated fully with the Department of Water Affairs and offered our full assistance, resources and support in order to bring this matter to a close.

Within our organisation, this incident has been handled through our formal compliance management procedures. As part of the Deutsche Telekom group, T-Systems South Africa subscribes to a stringent ethical code of conduct, supported by internal control and compliance management systems. All actions taken by T-Systems South Africa since we were made aware of the incident have been to ensure that this case was handled appropriately.

To date, we are not aware of any case being brought against T-Systems South Africa by the Department of Water Affairs.

Tags: water affairs department