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Source: South African government / Image: Special Investigating Unit
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has entered into memorandums of understanding (MoU) with the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) Anti-Corruption Coalition, and the Transparency, Integrity, and Accountability Programme (TIP) of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, with the aim of preventing corruption through data analytics.
The signing of the MoUs was attended by SIU head Adv. Andy Mothibi, Valieta Barnard from the National Treasury, Valeska Onken from the GIZ, and Dr Wendy Orr from GIBS, along with members of their respective teams who will be involved in the work stemming from the MoUs.
Speaking during the signing ceremony held at SIU offices in Meyerspark, Head of SIU, Adv. Andy Mothibi highlighted that this is the first collaboration of its kind in the space of digital and AI-based anti-corruption interventions in South Africa.
“Through these partnerships, the SIU will embark on statistical research efforts, proactive strengths and risk exposures, sector-based data analysis, awareness and advisory initiatives, capacity building, and integrating data analytics and predictive analysis into the institutions’ risk management systems,” he explained.
Mothibi went on to say that the SIU aims to take a leading role in South Africa to prevent and combat maladministration, fraud, and corruption by focusing on societal values and systems that make it difficult to engage in acts of impropriety. “To achieve this, the SIU must direct strategic decision-making processes and drive prevention activities through data analysis. This will provide the SIU with a competitive market advantage and long-term sustainability,” he said.
Mothibi further said that an important enabler for leveraging the power of data analytics to prevent and combat corruption is obtaining meaningful access to as many data sources as possible.
These MoUs are also part of the SIU’s implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, in particular, the whole-of-society approach, which is an integrated approach to the fight against corruption and calls on all sectors to participate in the fight against corruption and encourages collaboration between government, the private sector and civil society as one of the fundamentals of the strategy.
Through these collaboration agreements, the SIU seeks to ensure that its anti-corruption tools are advanced and enable the SIU to move towards the prevention of corruption. The SIU plans to publish sector data intelligence and use a prevention, advisory, and awareness capacity to advise stakeholders on systemic measures to proactively identify and prevent maladministration, fraud, and corruption.
