Pretoria - Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown has warned the public about syndicates posing as supply chain management officers of the department.
In a statement on Thursday, the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) said that a syndicate is asking the public to pay R2 500 for a position within the department. Another scheme involved fraudsters posing as supply chain management officers.
“The public received requests on their Facebook inboxes this week purportedly from me requesting advance payment of R2 500 for positions in the department. It appears authentic as the mail contains all my contact details with a contact person,” said Minister Brown.
The Minister said in another scheme, a company was defrauded out of R112 000 a week ago and that a criminal case has been opened with the South African Police Service.
“In this instance, the perpetrators lured individual private service providers to submit quotations to ‘DPE’ for specific services required. The modus operandi of the fraudsters is that they attach the department’s logo to their communication with the unsuspecting victims.
“They then pretend to be supply chain management officers and request other supporting documentation from service providers, which is followed by requests to have money deposited into their account(s),” sai the Minister.
The Minister appealed to the public to be vigilant.
“[I] want to make it clear that the department does not ask advance payment for any possible service to be rendered to the department and/or its state-owned companies,” said the Minister.
DPE’s supply chain management unit maintains a database of all registered service providers with no upfront payment required.
Registration to this database is free.
The public should contact Zandarine Theron at 012 431 1030 and/or zandarine.theron@dpe.gov.za to verify procurement opportunities and Phumeza Mabija at 012 431 1174 and/or phumeza.mabija@dpe.gov.za for general enquiries. – SAnews.gov.za
