Supervisor stole money

Piet Liebenberg

Our Times, 2 December 2011

Janice Jolinda Savage, a former employee of the Kouga Local Municipality, was found guilty in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Port Elizabeth last week of stealing R264 030 in cash and R599 360 in cheques from the municipality.

Savage, who is not in custody, will be sentenced on February 6 next year.

State prosecutor Ulrike de Klerk confirmed the court found that in the week of April 15 to 23 Savage received cash and cheques from the municipality’s cashiers but omitted to hand this over to Coin Security officials who were supposed to have transported the money to First National Bank.

None of the cash has been recovered and the cheques were not banked by Savage or the municipality. It is believed she destroyed the cheques but kept the cash.

Savage was a supervisor in the financial department of the municipality at the time. She resigned when the municipality started disciplinary measures against her.

Her duties included counting the money received by the cashiers at the end of each working day. She then had to place the day’s takings into safe custody before handing this over to Coin Security for transportation to the bank.

Savage and her husband, Edward, who is still employed at the municipality as a senior foreman in the technical department, were also accused in 2009 of successfully tendering for municipal contracts despite government laws prohibiting this.

They were believed to have brazenly used municipal equipment to conduct the business from municipal premises.

According to notes in the annual financial statements of the municipality for the year ending June 30 2010, J Savage and ET Savage are listed as relatives of people in a company called Delevex 754 CC and GW Projects which were awarded contracts to the value of R334 256 and R49118 by the municipality.

An external auditing firm did an investigation at the time but the municipality was not prepared to divulge the recommendations.

It is unclear at this stage whether the asset forfeiture unit will get involved with the recovery of the money. The Savages are believed to own extensive residential property in Jeffreys Bay and several vehicles.

Municipal spokesman Mfundo Sobelo admitted the cash was not recovered.