The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is investigating 18 lawyers linked to the Office of the State Attorney for allegedly making fraudulent medico-legal claims, amounting to more than R500m.
DispatchLIVE reports that of these, 13 are from the Eastern Cape and five from Gauteng. A month ago, the Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum received a report from the SIU of over R1.6bn worth of civil action matters that had been instituted in the High Court and the Special Tribunal.
SIU’s spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago confirmed that of the 13 provincial lawyers, three had been charged and faced numerous cases of fraud. Kganyago said the allegations against the Eastern Cape lawyers were mostly fraud and corruption. He said they had allegedly inflated invoices, claiming excessive hours and overreaching or overpayments. They allegedly submitted invoices for work not rendered and used fraudulent hourly rates.
‘The SIU together with legal tax bill consultants are verifying those invoices before civil cases are instituted in the Special Tribunal for civil recovery.’ Kganyago said some lawyers were being investigated for failure to declare themselves VAT vendors, in contravention of the VAT Act.
Others allegedly did double briefing or overreaching. The SIU also investigated Janilite (Pty) Ltd which acted as an intermediary in both Eastern Cape and Gauteng Health Departments. A settlement of R2.2m for alleged duplicate payments was agreed on by the two departments with the assistance of the SIU.
Department of Justice spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said the department was aware of an ongoing investigation into the State Attorney’s office. ‘Once we have received a final report, we stand ready to give effect to its recommendations,’ Phiri said.
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