Corruption ‘affects SA’s response to Covid-19 pandemic’

The extent to which corruption affected countries’ monitoring their healthcare responses to Covid-19 is highlighted by two reports: the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) personal protective equipment tenders report that correlates with the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) results, released by Transparency International.

Liezl Groenewald, a business ethicist at the Ethics Institute, said corruption in South Africa was rife because people’s behaviour was determined and influenced by their values.

“If societal values make it okay for people to steal, then they will do so,” she said.

SA achieved a low score of 44 and ranked 69, alongside Bulgaria, Hungary, Jamaica, Romania and Tunisia in terms of public perceptions around corruption.

For the past eight years, the country has stagnated at 44, forming part of the two-thirds of countries with a score below 50.

In the previous CPI, the country scored 44. Meanwhile, in 2018 and 2017 it scored 43. The year prior to that, SA scored 45.

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The Covid-19 investigations of the value of contracts awarded to service providers totaled more than R14.2 billion, with R1.7 billion irregular spending identified.

Andy Mothibi, head advocate at the SIU, said the latest progress report was submitted to President Cyril Ramaphosa on 30 April.

“The report includes 40% of the investigations that have been finalised. Our overall target time to complete the investigations is August,” he said.

Mothibi added there were about 6% of investigations of contracts valued at R87 million awarded to service providers that were yet to start.

“We continue to receive new allegations and cannot exclude the new allegations that were being reported,” he noted. The number of referrals to the relevant departments totaled 191.

“The SIU has made 38 referrals to the NPA,” he said.

“This category also included blacklisting of service providers. The number was quite sizable where some of the service providers would be restricted. The number of referrals for executive action included MECs, those who were in charge of departments, and political heads of the departments,” Mothibi said.

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The SIU head said the unit was granted a preservation order to the value of R40.7 million by the Special Tribunal to freeze bank accounts and assets belonging to 14 service providers.

The service providers were contracted by the Gauteng department of education to decontaminate, disinfect, and sanitise schools for over R431 million.

“The SIU investigation has revealed that the procurement process conducted by the Gauteng education department was manifestly unlawful,” Mothibi said.

– asandam@citizen.co.za