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Thread: North West Public Works on lucrative government contracts scam

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    Administrator I Robot's Avatar
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    North West Public Works on lucrative government contracts scam

    Warning about scams preying on unsuspecting victims with promises of lucrative government contracts in North West

    15 March 2009

    Public Works North West, warns business entities, of approximately six separate scams, using the same modus operandi methods in some parts of the province.
    These, swindle unsuspecting victims of substantial amounts of money, paid upfront, to help secure “lucrative government contracts” which do not and never existed. The scams, according to our information, impress and purport to use their acumen and skill, to help “clinch contracts”, allegedly with the Department of Public Works.

    Unsuspecting victims are conned into paying between R6 000 and R100 000 in administration fees to members of the scam to facilitate the ‘deal’ on their behalf. One such victim was allegedly promised a contract to the value of R61 million for a non-existent school project in Coligny outside Lichtenburg.
    The latest victim-a motor vehicle service centre was made to believe to have been awarded a whopping R36 million “contract” by the department.
    The manufactured contract had to do with the “service and repair” of government vehicles in the Klerksdorp/Potchefstroom areas. “Tenders for such contracts never ever existed. In fact the servicing of government fleet vehicles does not even form part of our mandate,” said a spokesman, Matshube Mfoloe.

    “The most worrying factor is the culprits also masquerade as employees of the department. They use fake or falsified letter heads bearing our departmental logo including the code of arms plus a rubber stamp in the correspondence to their victims,” he said. It has also been brought to our attention that, one of the culprits in the latest incident, has a title of Chief Director, Projects. This position does not exist in our department.

    Our official letter heads as well as the text of the rubber stamps we use differed significantly from what the scams are using. “All contracts in government, big or small, must adhere and subscribe to certain requirements as stipulated by law. Government contracts for amounts of R500 000 and more are advertised in the mainstream media,” Mfoloe said.

    He said the process to award the contract is transparent and no one is expected to influence the awarding process to favour a particular person or company.
    Mfoloe said victims who have fallen prey to the scams were urged to report the incidents to the police.

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    Last edited by Dave A; 17-Mar-09 at 11:21 AM.

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    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
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    Some part of me feels like there is a sense of twisted justice in this. "Facilitate" the deal on their behalf?
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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by I Robot View Post
    He said the process to award the contract is transparent and no one is expected to influence the awarding process to favour a particular person or company.
    At least that's the theory.

    All people on the take are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and until that day corrupt practices do not exist

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    Taking into consideration how some industries operate I can understand why these individuals are so successful. Bribery is as old as greed thus the odd payment here and there seems like an inevitability.

    It is scary how open businesses are to this, and how tempting it will be to just hand them a handful of impressive but useless papers for a large amount of money. I think someone with good business practice will not fall victim to this easily...

    So I will not question motive from the criminal’s side instead I will remain suspicious of the businesses that did fall victim to these scams. I think investigation might show that there practices is not that honest to start with.

    However you will get odd company that is not doing too well and hoped to better its footing.

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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    I'm glad to see there isn't much sympathy for the businesses getting scammed. But the fact that the issue attracts a news release kinda highlights the state of play at the moment.

    Right now we're sitting with an approved order that's "stuck" at the guy who is supposed to sign the order off. The game started with requests for information that wasn't part of the supplier registration or bid evaluation. It has definitely been approved by the decision makers, but even with all further information submitted, the order still hasn't come through.

    I've got a hunch he's waiting on an "offer" to "expedite" the order.

    I'm stuck waiting until someone from maintenance starts screaming blue murder as to why the task hasn't been done yet.

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    I might fall of topic here but I remember someone that did work for a known energy company. On the bottom in small writing there was a penalty system. If the quote was declined that a penalty would be payable. This penalty would be about 10% of the quoted amount. I also remember that the person that signed the quotation had to sign next to this part as well. Never noticing it because it was so small. I don’t know if they had to pay anything but I am sure that this in itself this quote was something like a scam?

    Anyway back on topic... I feel nothing for businesses that participate in bribery.

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    Gold Member garthu's Avatar
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    Feel nothing for them if they new it was basically a bribe. However just to give them benefit of the doubt (seems to be common practice ) it really may just have been people representing themselves as a middle man, or maybe a consulting partner etc. I know its a long shot.. but... yeah i must admiti don't really believe that either. Wind my neck in now
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