Gangster State

Cayman later that day. The following evening, he started doing some
serious business in the tropical paradise. At just before midnight local
time, he sent an email with an attached Word document to the private
Gmail account of John Matlakala, the FSHS director who had sent him
and Sodi the IPW for the asbestos auditing contract. The document
Mpambani sent to Matlakala was an invoice for R 76. 5 million, marked
‘Invoice Number 002 ’. The following morning, Mpambani sent two
more invoices to Matlakala for R 20 million and R 31 million
respectively. Clearly, these were for the two payments the department
had already made. In other words, the FSHS paid Blackhead–Diamond
Hill R 51 million without being invoiced first. This is an indefensible
accounting transgression.
According to the contract, the department was supposed to pay
Blackhead–Diamond Hill in accordance with the following fee
structure: the full contract amount of R 255 million was to be divided
into two equal payments of R 127. 5 million. Blackhead–Diamond Hill
was entitled to 40 per cent of R 127. 5 million as an upfront payment –
in other words, R 51 million. The remaining 60 per cent of the first
payment of R 127. 5 million, which amounted to R 76. 5 million, was to
be paid as ‘progress certificate no. 2 ’, according to the IPW.
The fact that the upfront payment of R 51 million had been split
clearly confused Matlakala, who now needed to process the invoices
Mpambani was sending him from the Caymans. He emailed
Mpambani with the following request: ‘Kindly forward your
documents in PDF format and observe the following: 1. Invoice 001 for
R 51 [million] must be dated 02 Dec 2014. 2. Invoice 002 for R 31
[million] must be dated 12 Jan 2015 .’ Mpambani tried to clarify. ‘Good
day Mr. Tlaks, there seems to be a little confusion,’ he wrote. ‘Invoice 1