CORRUPTION NEWS

Corruption: We’re gatvol

By Sipho Masondo First published in City Press Until it becomes “embarrassing to be caught with one’s hand in the cookie jar”, South Africa is never going to beat corruption. This is according to a Durban civil servant, who’s among the 70% of South Africans who don’t believe we’ll ever stop corruption, new research by Read more >

DEAR CORRUPTION WATCH

Municipalities are cleaning up their act, audit by audit

Dear Corruption Watch, I heard that the auditor-general recently released a report on the annual audit of local government entities. Why do we have these audits and what can the report tell us about corruption in our municipalities? Is there any good news? Hoping Dear Hoping The annual financial audits of local government entities play Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Creecy to investigate improper procurement

We often read reports of government leaders not taking the findings and recommendations of public service watchdogs seriously. Gauteng MEC of finance, Barbara Creecy is changing that perception, hopefully with positive results in sight. This week she announced during the tabling of her department’s annual report that officials in her department would be investigated with Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Can you be both loyal and honest?

By Janine Erasmus Part one of our series defined the practises of nepotism, cronyism, patronage and cadre deployment, and discussed their effect on the ethics culture generally. In the second and final part we deal with the dilemma of loyalty vs honesty, and explain why appointing unsuitable people can end up costing a lot of Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

It’s not what you know, but …

By Janine Erasmus Nepotism, cadre deployment, patronage, cronyism – we hear those terms often, but what do they mean, not just literally, but for South Africa? Why are these practices so harmful, especially in the public sector? Read our new two-part series to better understand the consequences of not employing the right person for the Read more >

CORRUPTION NEWS

Civil society asks for dissolution of arms commission

More than 30 local social justice organisations, including Corruption Watch, have issued a joint call for real arms deal accountability. Read their statement below: The 1999 arms deal represents up to R70-billion that should have been spent on housing, education, health and South Africa’s other pressing social needs. The arms deal corrupted our politics, weakened Read more >

OPINIONS

Minions merely follow the leader

By Kabelo Sedupane The resignation of IEC chairperson Pansy Tlakula reveals that there are consequences to the flouting of procurement rules and unethical conduct – however, the question remains as to whether the unauthorised expenditure of public funds should necessitate further investigations and harsher sanctions. Within a culture of rampant abuse of public funds, the Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Staff turnover costs money

We have another zero this week – this time it’s those government departments who, according to a recent Mail & Guardian study, waste millions of rands of taxpayers’ money on senior civil servants who are being paid for early termination of their contracts. The M&G reports that up to R44-million a year could potentially be Read more >