The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA)was unimpressed that the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) civil recoveries stood at R3.35 billion in the past decade considering the extent of corruption exposed over the years.
A total of 245 presidential proclamations were authorised for the investigating unit to probe since its establishment in 2001, with the majority involving national departments and public entities.
The Presidency and SIU executives provided updates on investigation reports and money recovered.
Of the R3.35bn public funds recovered, R2bn came from Eskom and Transnet, R400 million from the Department of Water and Sanitation, and R3.12m from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluations’ Jonathan Timm said this was cash in hand and excludes the value of contracts set aside. He said significant work has been done over the past years.
“The Presidency receives reports when the Special Investigating Unit concludes an investigation and issues these reports to the affected organs of state, communicating the recommendations made by the SIU.
“A tracking system has been implemented in the Presidency to strengthen oversight and accountability for the implementation of these recommendations. (A) Total of 98 investigations were completed prior to 2019 and the status of implementing recommendations that were made is being probed,” he said.
However, DA MP Alf Lees said the R3.35m was a small amount of money given the extent of the funds exposed in the Zondo state capture report
“In the big picture this is actually a very small amount of money given the extent of the Zondo report. I do understand that this is not the value of contracts, but if you look at the extent of losses due to corruption at entities like Eskom and then look at the recoveries it should be much greater. This is a bit of a worry, is that all? I don’t think so. We have also been beating the drum for years now when it comes to vetting, especially at the big state entities. The work being done is still a bit slow, but at least we are seeing progress that is welcomed,” said Lees.
SIU head advocate Andy Mothibi agreed that recoveries were relatively small compared with the value of the contracts in question that amounted to R120bn.
He also said the pace of the work had also improved thanks to the establishment of the Special Tribunal which was assisting to fast-track recoveries.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa established the Special Tribunal in November 2019 to fast-track recoveries of public funds by SIU. The SIU had previously relied on applications in the High Court. The data suggests that this intervention has significantly increased the ability of the state to recover misappropriated public funds. We believe we have got very sharp teeth now to follow up and execute and prosecute the civil recoveries,” said Mothibi.
There were 385 disciplinary recommendations being monitored, 13 dismissals and 18 final written warnings among actions taken against employees. There were a total of 304 recommendations for criminal prosecution in relation to Covid-19 procurement investigations and more than 90 directors have been restricted from doing business with the government.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said: “We look forward to Scopa’s report on these matters because it will assist us in lessons on what we need to improve in the future. The issue with corruption in the country has also been embedded in the system.”
Cape Times