Bosasa bribed prisons official for R106m 'rapid' payment‚ says Angelo Agrizzi

Upfront payment made 20 days after television contract was awarded to SondoloFormer Bosasa chief operating officer Angelo Agrizzi on Wednesday told the Zondo commission into state capture how former department of correctional services (DCS) chief financial officer Patrick Gillingham allegedly manipulated procurement processes for a R106m television tender to be awarded to Sondolo.

According to Agrizzi‚ as well as a Special Investigating Unit report‚ the contract was awarded to Sondolo on March 3 2006.

Sondolo‚ a subsidiary of Bosasa‚ submitted an invoice 10 days later and the payment was processed on March 23 2006. Evidence leader advocate Paul Pretorius observed that this was “rapid” for a state contract of that amount.

The R106m was paid upfront before Sondolo had done any work.

Agrizzi said this was because Bosasa paid Gillingham to speed up the process by cutting corners.

“The motivation was that it was important products and that it (DCS) needed to pay upfront‚” said Agrizzi.

Zondo asked him if this motivation was “genuine and correct“.

“No‚ it was not. Some of the money needed to be paid upfront but not all of it‚ definitely not R106m. I think (the upfront payment) should have amounted to R25m or R27m.”

Agrizzi continues with his testimony.