Posts

The problem of corruption in professional services

By Kwazi Dlamini A recent series of briefs by the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) has shed light on the role that four particular professional service industries have played in enabling corruption – these industries are law, accounting, auditing and management consulting. Among their members are names we have become used to hearing about, and not Read more >

Professionals – or professional wrongdoers?

By Kwazi Dlamini Characteristics of a profession: • The offering of a service to the public; • The possession of a special skill; • Having undergone specified training and education; • The possession of privilege or state recognition; • Membership to a self-disciplined group, with a “community of interest in theory and in fact among Read more >

Clamping down on wayward auditors

Auditors and auditing firms have been in the news in recent months. We read about the likes of VBS Mutual Bank, Steinhoff and others, where auditors seemingly turned a blind eye to irregularities. Firms such as KPMG, which has been implicated in scandals involving the Gupta-owned Linkway Trading as well as the South African Revenue Read more >

Poor support for whistle-blowers a problem for Zondo

By Rebecca Davis First published on Daily Maverick “The response has not been what we were expecting,” remarked Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo when he opened the first day of the state capture inquiry. “The response has been quite disappointing.” Zondo was referring to the apparent public reluctance to comply with a call put out Read more >

Africa’s whistle-blowers: ‘All I did was tell the truth’

By Olivier Piot Translated by Charles Goulden First published in The Nation South African president Jacob Zuma resigned in February 2018 over the biggest corruption scandal since the end of apartheid, which involved both the president and his son. Zuma’s exit became inevitable last June, after the publication of thousands of confidential documents revealing that Read more >

CW urges deputy president to appoint new NDPP

Corruption Watch welcomes the serving of a court order to freeze assets of McKinsey and Trillian. This must naturally be followed by the commencement of criminal proceedings against these two firms as well as against the individual McKinsey, Trillian and Eskom executives and board members implicated in the wholesale looting of public resources. Corruption Watch Read more >

CW responds to McKinsey statement

McKinsey’s belated and inadequate response to its gross, and, it appears, criminal malfeasance with regard to its relationship with Eskom and Trillian, does not begin to address the substance of our concerns. These concerns revolve around: the manner in which McKinsey secured the contract with Eskom and the role played by the politically connected Trillian in securing that contract; Read more >

Civil society joins forces calling McKinsey to account

 Press release and memorandum Future South Africa and the variety of civil society organisations associated with it today holds a picket outside the offices of McKinsey in South Africa to protest the way in which the global company conducted itself in relation to its empowerment partner Trillian Capital and their business deals with Eskom. McKinsey Read more >

CW: KPMG, McKinsey must be investigated

CW weighs in on KPMG and McKinsey’s alleged involvement in Gupta-related business dealings Corruption Watch strongly endorses the investigation by the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors into allegations of improper conduct of auditing firm KPMG, in particular its 2014 audit of Linkway Trading, the company alleged to be involved in the related Free State dairy Read more >