ANC employee in ID scam
2003-08-08 14:43
Cape Town - The African National Congress in parliament has confirmed the suspension of an employee under police investigation for an identity fraud scam possibly involving millions of rands.
ANC spokesperson Cuba Mahaye said on Friday the party had become suspicious of certain discrepancies regarding ANC payslips "a few months ago" and had handed the matter over to police.
"An internal (ANC) investigation was launched during the last (parliamentary) session, because we were suspicious that something was wrong with our payslips," he said.
The second parliamentary term ran from April to the end of June.
Mahaye said police raided the administrative assistant's office on Wednesday, and the party had suspended the employee from her position later that day.
"The police came at the right time, they knew there was a box of payslips in her office...it was no longer speculation," he said.
The woman cannot be named for legal reasons.
Western Cape police spokesperson Captain Rod Beer said the commercial crimes unit had seized pay slips with names and salaries of non-existent ANC employees in a raid on the woman's office.
No one had been arrested yet, and he was not aware that anyone was being interrogated.
The Cape Argus reported on Friday police feared banks and stores may have been defrauded of millions of rands in the scam.
It was believed she used her position in Parliament to confirm the identity of other fraudsters so they could open bank and credit accounts.
Syndicate members would use the pay slips and fake identity books to open bank accounts across Cape Town, which would then be used to open credit accounts for clothing, furniture and other large department stores.
Investigators were expected on Friday to begin sifting through data on the woman's computer and to examine phone and fax records to ascertain how long the scam had been operating, the newspaper said.
Mahaye said the party was not, at this stage, considering disciplinary action against the employee, but would follow the police investigation carefully.
He called upon others with information on the alleged scam to come forward.
"We are still not sure of the extent of the damage caused by this bogus thing," Mahaye said.
- SAPA