Durban - A Newcastle Municipality employee who allegedly defrauded the payroll system to the tune of R3.1 million has been released on bail.
According to KZN National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Natasha Ramkisson-Kara , the accused Dedre Van Rooyen appeared in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Thursday morning.
“The State's case is that Van Rooyen manipulated the municipality's payroll system to benefit an amount of approximately R3.1 million.”
Ramkisson-Kara said the accused was granted a bail amount of R50 000.
As part of her bail conditions Van Rooyen had to surrender her passport to the investigating officer.
She is also not permitted to visit any port of entry and cannot KwaZulu-Natal without prior consent of the investigating officer.
Lastly Van Rooyen is not allowed change her address or relocate without informing the investigating officer in advance.
The matter was postponed to December 1 for further investigations.
In March this year, the chairperson of the co-operative governance and traditional affairs portfolio committee, Faith Muthambi, raised concerns over the slow speed applied in the finalisation of corruption investigations in municipalities.
Muthambi said the committee had received reports on 64 cases involving different municipalities.
“A report presented by the SIU stated that 18 cases of municipal corruption were finalised, 21 cases were before the courts and 25 others were under investigation.”
IOL