Posts

Parastatals in the grip of graft

Airports, water boards, harbours and power utilities all play a vital role in South Africa’s economy, but what happens when staff at these state-owned enterprises (SOEs) rig multibillion-rand tenders or dish out jobs to their ill-suited friends and family? In this feature, we examine the dozens of tip-offs we’ve received about this kind of corruption Read more >

Corruption Watch exposé leads to suspensions

By Zaheer Cassim Three officials at Dr JS Moroka municipality near Witbank in Mpumalanga have been suspended after a Corruption Watch investigation exposed some very dodgy spending by procurement clerks employed by the municipality. Corruption Watch was alerted to the case when the accounting officer at a private company, who had been involved in supplying Read more >

CW lauds minister’s action on procurement

Kenneth Brown has been announced as the new chief procurement officer by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan during his budget speech on Wednesday 28 February in Parliament. Brown is currently Treasury's deputy director-general. Corruption Watch welcomes this move, as 22% of the more that 1 300 cases of corruption reported to the organisation by the public Read more >

New tool to help fight conflict of interest

Dodgy government officials who spend their time running their own businesses instead of helping to run the country will find it increasingly tricky to protect their private projects from public scrutiny, thanks to new tools that have been created to improve the visibility of any conflicts of interest. A new software package, created by six Read more >

Arms corruption: SA ‘high risk’

With the first round of Arms Deal Commission hearings just around the corner, the release of Transparency International’s (TI) inaugural government defence-corruption index couldn’t be more topical. According to the results South Africa scores a D+ and is labelled a “high risk” nation in terms of the susceptibility of our government to corruption in the Read more >

‘Release details of contracts awarded for Nkandla upgrade’

Corruption Watch (CW) has written a letter to Minister of Public Works Thulas Nxesi to ask for a copy of the investigation report into the upgrade of President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla residence. In particular, the civil society organisation wants the Minister to publish the names of the companies or individuals who were awarded the contracts Read more >

Putting a lid on explosive tender rot

By David Ondráčka When the phone rang, it was clear the caller was scared. He worked in the government, he said. He had information on a huge public tender that he needed to share. He had tried to complain to his superiors about the bidding process, but they had rebuffed his allegations. Now he wanted Read more >

Rethinking procurement to fight corruption

To combat corruption, the government and private industry have to change their models of supply change management, according to procurement experts. They were in Johannesburg on 4 October to inaugurate the government’s recognition of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS). Procurement, the buying of a good or service, is a contentious issue in Read more >