Posts

Sanral secrecy has dire implications

Dear Corruption Watch, I live in Cape Town, and I'm concerned about the new toll roads that Sanral wants to establish here. I heard that the matter is in court, but also heard that the court documents are secret. How can that be? Confused and Concerned Dear Confused, You're right to ask about this issue. Read more >

What’s at the core of the nuclear puzzle?

Dear Corruption Watch, I am confused. I thought that procuring a nuclear power plant required a public tender process, but then the Russian company selling us the goods issues a press release saying it's a done deal? What exactly is the deal? And is it possible or desirable to undertake a procurement exercise on this Read more >

R400-million firearm control system in shambles

By Daneel Knoetze First published on GroundUp Pressure is mounting on the police to sort out problems with a R400-million firearms control system, 10 years after the contract to develop it was signed with Pretoria-based company Waymark Infotech. In its successful bid for the contract in 2003, Waymark proposed an IT system which would enable Read more >

IEC now seeks to have lease set aside

In the same week of the deadline for nominations for the replacement of former Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson Pansy Tlakula, the matter of the lease contract that got her in trouble was entering the court space once more. The IEC wants the North Gauteng high court to set aside the R320-million lease agreement that Read more >

Public procurement must get smarter

Source: Polity In a frank address to the Smart Procurement World conference on 9 September Monday, National Treasury chief director of strategic procurement in the office of the chief procurement officer Estelle Setan acknowledged the shortcomings of the government’s existing public procurement processes, noting that her office was challenging public procurement realities in response to Read more >

Tlakula gives up the fight

It has taken a while, but embattled Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson Pansy Tlakula has resigned. “Her resignation opens the way for the Commission to begin closing a particularly challenging and tumultuous period in the Electoral Commission’s history and to move forward as an institution,” said the IEC in a statement. In March this year Read more >

Nkandla: Zuma’s report four months late

President Jacob Zuma has submitted his long-overdue response to the public protector’s Nkandla report. When Thuli Madonsela released her final report in March, she stipulated that Zuma must respond to the National Assembly within 14 days – he did not. Initially Zuma had said he would wait for the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to finalise Read more >

Good and bad of audit reports

  By Valencia Talane Depending on which way you look at it, the municipal audit report for the 2012/13 financial year offers either a positive or a miserable outlook for South Africa's local government landscape. The report was published last week by the auditor-general, Kimi Makwetu. As Pravin Gordhan, the minister in charge of local Read more >

Gordhan questions the rules

Valencia Talane The one-size-fits-all approach to the governance standards of local government does not work and needs a rethink, according to Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan. Gordhan, who was responding to the latest auditor-general report on municipalities on 30 July, said that the standard requirements for metro municipalities, for example, could not Read more >