CORRUPTION NEWS

Tools to fight corruption at your school

By Valencia Talane and Kavisha Pillay Need to know how to fight the abuse of power and resources in your child’s school? Check out our easy-to-use toolkit that will guide you on the right questions to ask, so you can address the right issues and hold the right people accountable.   YOUR SCHOOL GOVERNING BODY Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Ethics committee bares all the teeth it has

Our hero this week has censured the former minister of communications Dina Pule for misleading parliament and denying her romantic ties with a man who allegedly made millions from deals with the communications department while she was at its helm. Pule was found guilty yesterday by the parliamentary ethics committee for failing to disclose the Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

School corruption tip-offs rising steadily

Since kicking off our schools campaign in January this year, the number of complaints about corruption in schools has increased dramatically. In March we recorded a total of 68 tip-offs, but by the end of July, this figure had passed the 200-mark. See our infographic explaining the trends here. The complaints indicate that principals and Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Thin blue line broken

By Kavisha Pillay The Global Corruption Barometer, released by Transparency International (TI) in July, revealed that South Africans viewed the police service as the most corrupt institution in the country. A staggering 83 percent of respondents had this perception of the police, and of the 74 percent of respondents who came into contact with a police official Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Weighing in on public service clean-up bill

Corruption Watch recently made submissions on the Public Administration Management Bill, calling for an outright ban on civil servants doing business with the state, a cooling off period when an individual moves from the public to private sector, and prohibiting re-employment within the state if an individual is fired for corruption-related misconduct. The draft law, Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Audit finds dirty deals at Pikitup

A corruption probe into dodgy tenders worth R360-million at Pikitup ground to a halt after the state-owned waste utility mysteriously pulled the plug on the investigation. The Sunday Times has established that Pikitup paid audit firm EY (formerly Ernst & Young) R6-million to investigate tender rigging – then halted the probe in October 2012 before Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Poor audit for Gauteng housing department

By Valencia Talane   Gauteng’s department of local government and housing is no stranger to bad news, the latest being poor audit results from the 2012/13 financial year. The auditor-general’s office revealed on Thursday that housing fared the worst out of all the Gauteng departments audited. Premier Nomvula Mokonyane told the media that the department’s Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Strengthening integrity in government

By Lorraine Louw Ethics was a topical point at the centenary conference of the Public Service Commission (PSC), where the twin issues of good governance and corruption were discussed by a variety of speakers. The PSC was originally formed by the colonial government on 1 August 1912; it has had a number of permutations since Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Non-compliance vs corruption – is there a difference?

By Lorraine Louw A lively debate about what constitutes corruption was held at the Public Service Commission’s centenary conference in Cape Town on 1 August. Integrity, said Ayanda Dlodlo, the deputy minister of public service and administration in the opening presentation of the breakaway session “The fight against corruption”, was more than simply the absence Read more >