30 prison officials arrested
2004-12-08 13:25
Durban - Thirty correctional services officials were arrested in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday in connection with a R30m medical aid fraud scam, Scorpions spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said.
The arrests follow information given to the Jali Commission of inquiry into prison corruption and an investigation which began in 2002.
A total of 701 prison officials have been implicated but, according to Nkosi, a decision was taken to arrest them in small batches to avoid "incapacitating" the prison service.
A medical doctor who had been struck off the roll and his assistant, who is also his common-law wife, allegedly recruited prison employees to submit their medical aid details and they then submitted false claims using these details and fraudulently obtained practice numbers of other doctors.
When the medical aid, Medcor, paid out, the doctor kept 60% of the payment and the prison employee received 40%.
The number of charges each person faced depended on how many times they benefited, Nkosi said.
On Wednesday, 16 arrests were made at the Westville prison, 13 in Pietermaritzburg and one in Umtata.
They were expected to appear in the court later on Wednesday.
- SAPA