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NALEDI SHOTA|
The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) will freeze seven more bank accounts of companies that were irregularly appointed by the Gauteng Department of Education to decontaminate schools.
Last month, the SIU announced that it had been granted an order to freeze 14 bank accounts and assets to the value of R40.7 million belonging to 14 companies that were also irregularly appointed to do work in schools.
Today, the SIU said the value of the bank accounts that had been frozen for the seven accounts was R22.4 million.
The department has been under fire after an investigation by Daily Maverick revealed that it had spent R431 million on decontaminating schools between June and August last year.
That investigation further established that there was no need to decontaminate the schools as they were not occupied for months because learners were at home during the hard lockdown.
The SIU has said that the seven companies were irregularly appointed along with over 200 others.
READ: SIU freezes accounts of decontamination companies contracted by GDE
“Special Tribunal order prohibits Chachulani Group Investment Holdings, Muta Investment Holdings, Netvision Energy Savers, Psychin Consulting, Home Ground Trading 1105, Mpale Investments Holdings, and Naledzi Investment Trust from dealing with the funds held in the bank accounts.
“The companies began dissipating the funds received from the Gauteng Department of Education, upon receipt. Traces of the funds show that the companies made large payments to unidentified recipients who have, in turn, disposed of them,” reads a statement by the SIU.
The SIU has further revealed that some of the companies were appointed through whatsapp by senior officials in the department.
The post SIU freezes more bank accounts of companies linked to the GP department of education tender for sanitizing schools appeared first on Inside Education.