Bosasa subsidiary paid official to cut corners, Agrizzi alleges
Former COO tells Zondo commission that payment for tender was made within 10 days and before any work had been done
Former Bosasa COO Angelo Agrizzi on Wednesday told the Zondo commission into state capture how former department of correctional services CFO 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,” said Agrizzi, and the department of correctional services "needed to pay upfront”. Zondo asked him if this motivation was “genuine and correct”. “No, it was not. Some of the mone...
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