The Speaker told a media conference in Cape Town yesterday there had been suggestions from some travel agencies that Parliament’s presiding officers should intervene because the investigation would damage travel institution.
This follows a preliminary investigation by parliament that uncovered irregularities relating to trips undertaken by MPs. In some instances Parliament found that travel agencies altered travel vouchers to cover for trips that MPs never undertook and this included irregular charges for hired vehicles that were not used.
“No member is going to be able to claim that I am immune from an investigation. No member of staff will be immune and if found to have committed fraud, if it was inadvertent, fine, say so, but there will be no immunity,” said Ginwala.
Ginwala said travel agents also said they would grant information if they were not involved in legal proceedings.
The Speaker said Parliament, through her, refused the offer. There are six travel agencies currently under investigation.
In some cases, it was found that travel warrants had been altered by travel agents to destinations different to that actually undertaken by MPs.
Last week police swooped on a number of travel agencies and seized documents and computers that would now have to be processed, she said. “There seems to be a number of possibilities that we have identified.
The scale of the fraud, the extent it now exists is quite large.
“We have stopped payment for a number of agencies and in July, R2,5-million was stopped being paid to these particular agents, so far I think we have got something in the region of R4-million as possible frauds,” she added.
She also said the investigation would focus on the present, but based on the evidence gathered, could also go back to previous years.
“It seems also that in a number of cases vouchers had been used, or Parliament has been billed in the guise of travel arrangements for things like car hire, which is not covered, hotel bookings, a range of others”, she said. She told the media that in the past, Parliament’s financial systems were not up to scratch, but new accounting software was currently being installed.
Parliament was also looking at a new procurement system and additional people would be employed in an effort to halt fraudulent activities. “Personally, I think we going to have to review the voucher system for the next year, cause if it can’t be managed we would have to do something”.
She also mentioned that she had written to the Chief Whips of political parties in Parliament informing them of the investigation. –BuaNews.
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