With the help of lawyers, accountants, white-shoe professionals and complicit Western governments, the wealthy and well-connected have avoided paying trillions of dollars in taxes. The cost to governments is estimated at over $800-billion per year. This article from the ICIJ reminds us what tax havens are, how they operate, and why the Panama Papers is still such an important project, four years after it broke.
Parliament is inviting suitably qualified citizens to apply for the upcoming post of auditor-general. The term of office of the incumbent, Kimi Makwetu, will end on 30 November 2020. Applications must be e-mailed to the secretary of the Ad Hoc Committee on Appointment of the Auditor-General by no later than 16h30 on 17 July 2020.
Corruption Watch has written to the parliamentary ad-hoc committee on the appointment of the auditor-general to express its views, plans, and recommendations around the appointment of Kimi Makwetu’s successor. The organisation called for fairness, transparency, and a good dose of public participation. Makwetu’s term ends on 30 November 2020.
Corruption Watch and other founding members of the Anti-Intimidation and Ethical Practises Forum will host a free webinar on the practices of ethics by professionals who are on the front line on the fight against corruption. The webinar will be hosted on 23 July 2020.
The appointment of leaders to institutions that fight crime and corruption must not be undertaken lightly, writes Sabeehah Motala, and the highest standards must be rigorously upheld. Motala unpacks CW’s recent submission in this regard to the Zondo Commission.
Auditor-general Kimi Makwetu has found that municipalities have regressed further in their use of public money. The 2018/19 Municipal Finance Management Act audit report, released yesterday, shows that billions of rands have been lost to fruitless and wasteful expenditure, including mismanagement of funds by some municipalities.
In these times of Covid-19, economic stress and distrust of government, writes economist Larry Kirsch, leaders should be looking for positive new ways to put transparency and accountability at the top of their agenda. In South Africa, one of those avenues could be the rigorous enforcement of and adherence to the Promotion of Access to Information Act, the proper use of which is an effective antidote to entrenched corruption.
Corruption Watch on 30 June made a submission to the draft Public Procurement Bill in response to National Treasury’s gazetted call for comments. The organisation has received over 30 000 reports alleging corruption since it launched in 2012 – 9% of those reports relate to procurement corruption.
If mining communities are continuously left out of key decision-making processes, write CW’s Matshidiso Dibakwane and Mashudu Masutha, it will exacerbate social instability and continue to challenge the sustainability of the sector. Now is the time to turn this situation around and make community engagement a priority.