Tenders continued to be awarded despite the municipal manager’s disapproval and the bid committee not being in agreement with the appointment of some service providers during the pilot phase of Nelson Mandela Bay’s beleaguered Integrated Public Transport System (IPTS).
An investigation initiated by the National Treasury into how much had been paid to the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality for the implementation of the Integrated Public Transport System (IPTS) is what led to forensic investigators uncovering an alleged scheme by high-ranking officials, municipal employees and business people.
Volumes of exhibits, including nine lever-arch files containing bank statements of those allegedly involved in the multimillion-rand Integrated Public Transport System (IPTS) fraud case, set the tone for proceedings in the high court on Monday.
Not only brothers in name, they were also brothers in arms in business in an alleged “well-oiled” machine set up to pilfer millions of rand meant to be used for the Bay’s beleaguered Integrated Public Transport System (IPTS).
“Not guilty” were the words uttered in succession by the men and women accused of siphoning off millions of rand meant for Nelson Mandela Bay’s now defunct Integrated Public Transport System (IPTS) as they were asked to plead to the charges on Tuesday.