Burt Botha News Today

Large sums of money meant for the good of Nelson Mandela Bay residents, through the R298m injected into the Bay’s beleaguered Integrated Public Transport System, was siphoned off within a single financial year.

In less than a month, more than R8m, meant to be used for the beleaguered Integrated Public Transport System, was paid into one of the business accounts of Fareed Fakir.

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.