In the past year, South Africans have endured not only the hardships of Covid-19 on top of everything else, but have been subjected to the outlandish and improbable promises of campaigning politicians gearing up for the local government elections. When casting our vote, writes Corruption Watch’s Melusi Ncala, we must keep in mind that their promises were many and their deliveries were few.
Corruption Watch recently analysed the spend by the South African Police Service on PPEs during the Covid-19 era, and the results reveal a disturbing trend of gross inflation of prices, fruitless and wasteful expenditure and possible corruption. The data was obtained from publicly available Treasury records – but if such revelations are not followed by consequences for the perpetrators, they might as well not bother.
These days civil society is more conscious about corruption, writes Ferial Haffajee, and this heightened awareness and resultant publicising of the issue can can make it seem things are getting worse rather than better. But corruption is being exposed – though not addressed – more frequently than ever before. This momentum will be lost, however, unless activism, investigation and prosecution are intensified.
The Public Service Commission, once a beacon of accountability for ethical professionalism in the public service, has turned into a mafia-style organisation in which staff members suffer relentless victimisation for exposing wrongdoing, says a whistle-blower. A new three-part series into our investigation of the situation at the entity shows that it is far from being the exemplar of good governance that it purports to be.
Today Corruption Watch released its first report that analyses procurement information drawn from National Treasury data captured between 2016 and 2020. The analysis was made possible by CW’s new online tool, Procurement Watch, which aggregates data from the individually published reports. The report focuses on trends regarding deviations and expansion of contracts, areas which can potentially raise red flags.
Corruption Watch has today released the first report from its new online tool Procurement Watch. The report analyses data held by the National Treasury. with a focus on reported deviations and expansions to contracts between 2016 and 2021, as well as an analysis of the available restricted supplier information.
President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Act into law in May 2021, and it will commence on 1 November, bringing new regulations and a code of conduct for councillors. With municipal elections taking place on the same sday as the commencement, the incoming municipal officers will be subject to the provisions of the amended act.
If used effectively, local government is not only a vehicle to be used exclusively for service delivery, but it can also be used to involve people in the democratic processes, writes social and political commentator Kenneth Mokgatlhe. However, political parties often squander their chances at this level.
Our new mini-series shines the spotlight on the current Financial Action Task Force (FATF) beneficial ownership review process. Part 1 presents the particular issues the financial watchdog has recently sought input on, part 2 examines the five recommendations submitted by Transparency International as a response to the FATF invitation, part 3 looka at the FATF response to the call for submissions, and part 4 recaps a number of recent high-profile examples of why beneficial ownership transparency is so important.