Cipro gets stuck into probe of cloning
August 12, 2009
By Wiseman Khuzwayo
The Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro) has launched a probe into alleged fraud in its systems, which has resulted in legitimate firms and close corporations (CCs) being cloned by conmen and their funds being diverted into bogus bank accounts.
Elsabé Conradie, a spokeswoman for Cipro, said yesterday that an internal investigation into the alleged scam was being conducted. This involved 114 duplicate firms identified by Politicsweb, part of Moneyweb.
Business Report has reported on Dumisa Dlamini, a former Swazi tycoon, who was financially ruined when his CC was cloned. This resulted in Absa, which claimed Dlamini's CC owed it R13 million, liquidating 10 sugar cane farms and 10 hotels belonging to him.
Dlamini has consistently denied that he had ever borrowed money from the bank.
Politicsweb gave an example of media group Avusa being successfully counterfeited and registered with Cipro as Avusa Media (Gauteng).
Conradie said the Cipro system could not detect this type of fraud. In such cases, Cipro now required the already registered firm to confirm on its letterheads that it had agreed to the proposed new registration.
She said Cipro had launched a forensic audit into how R51m in tax refunds from the SA Revenue Service (Sars) for Sun Microsystems and SBC International Management Services was paid to duplicate firms.
Adrian Lackay, a spokesman for Sars, said the fraud was discovered in January, involving a member of the agency who colluded with syndicates. Another person, who was not a Sars employee, was arrested.
Cipro has opened a probe into a tender worth R151m - more than twice the original tender price - awarded to relatively unknown Valor IT. It is for an enterprise content management platform used to drive Cipro's electronic transformation process.
Conradie said the investigation involved Cipro working with Sars, the SAPS and the National Intelligence Agency.
Cipro's U-turn was despite a statement in May by chief executive Keith Sendwe, who said that due process was followed in awarding the tender.
Conradie said complaints from other tenderers had resulted in the audit and Sendwe had agreed to it.
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