Fight against graft 'dismal'

Fight against graft 'dismal'
GRAEME HOSKEN | 02 May, 2012

A scathing report on government corruption has highlighted "grave concerns" about the lack of commitment to fighting the scourge.

The Public Service Commission report - presented at a recent Independent Police Investigative Directorate conference in Bloemfontein - revealed dismal performance in investigating corruption in state departments.

The report, by commissioner Selinah Nkosi, focused on allegations of corruption made to the National Corruption Hotline since its establishment in 2004, feedback from the police and the independent police watchdog, and the results of national and provincial government investigations of corruption.

Nkosi expressed "grave concern" about corruption and the inability of government departments to investigate it rigorously.

Nkosi criticised both the police and the police watchdog for their failure to report on their investigations.

The National Corruption Hotline had received feedback on only 45% of independent directorate investigations, and on only 53% of investigations by the police . The directorate and the police had closed only 28% and 41% of corruption cases, respectively, Nkosi said.

"The lack of feedback is forcing the commission to consider issuing summonses against [state] departments.

"The commission believes that all government departments must streamline procurement processes to eradicate corruption, with department heads held accountable if disciplinary action is not instituted within 60 days."

Tendersure CEO Werner Coetzee said the cost of corruption to South Africa was estimated to be as much as R675-billion.

"We extrapolated this figure from organisations such as the World Bank and World Trade Organisation, which estimate the total cost of a country's corruption being 20% of the total spent on tenders - which for South Africa is extremely frightening," he said.

Paul Hoffman, director of the Institute for Accountability, said: "Willie Hofmeyr, of the Asset Forfeiture Unit, estimates that R30-billion goes down the corruption tube through government tenders, and arms-deal expert Andrew Feinstein estimates the value of bribes paid in that deal at R2.1-billion."

Independent Police Investigative Directorate spokesman Moses Dlamini said the lack of feedback was due to "some matters still being investigated [or] feedback being given direct to the complainants".

THE FACTS AND FIGURES

137512 calls received;

14300 possible corruption cases identified;

9582 of the 14300 cases sent to government departments for investigation;

Feedback received on only 4859 cases;

Of 4859 cases, 3381 finalised; and

Of those successfully investigated, 603 officials fired, 226 suspended, 134 fined, 16 demoted, 330 given a final written warning, 190 prosecuted - and R120-million recovered.

TOP FORMS OF CORRUPTION

Fraud/bribery;

Abuse of government resources/vehicles;

Mismanagement of government funds; and

Identity document fraud.








Celebrity lawyer’s ‘hit’ plan



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De Wet Potgieter

Pretoria’s controversial celebrity lawyer, Peet Viljoen, due for trial next week in the R100m land scam involving prime property owned by the city of Johannesburg, allegedly approached a former associate of the fugitive Czech billionaire, Radovan Krejcir, for assistance in finding somebody to kill two prominent businessmen on his behalf.

“Peet asked me who could ‘take care’ of Zunaid Moti and Willie Botha,” Jerome Safi told The New Age this week. Soon after the meeting with Viljoen that took place in Bedfordview a month ago, Safi made a statement containing these allegations to the investigating officer, Capt Jan Judeel.

This was confirmed by police spokesperson Lt-Col Lungelo Dlamini, who said the statement had been handed to the prosecutor in the case for a decision.

Safi, a former confidante of Krejcir, was taken in for questioning by the police soon after the German supercar mogul Uwe Gemballa was abducted from OR Tambo airport in January 2010 on arrival.

The two men Viljoen allegedly wanted to be “taken care of”, according to Safi, are Willie Botha, former MD of Sharemax, and 37-year-old car-loving businessman Zunaid Moti, who was implicated in the alleged fraudulent land deal that he (Viljoen) is due to face in court with several other accused.

Details of the alleged assassination plots surfaced on Wednesday when word got around in the Gauteng underworld that Viljoen was allegedly spreading rumours in an effort to create tension between Krejcir and Safi.

“He (Viljoen) is jeopardising people’s lives,” Safi’s uncle, Dave Safi, told The New Age. Dave Safi said discussions between him and Krejcir defused the bad blood created by Viljoen’s rumour mongering in time and cleared the air.

Approached for comment, Krejcir confirmed that he had five meetings with Viljoen recently regarding business proposals. His last meeting with Viljoen was on Wednesday morning.

However, Krejcir says there is more to the story: “Peet told me earlier that Jerome said to him he has to kill me,” Krejcir said. Viljoen said when he asked Safi why he wanted Krejcir dead, he replied: “If I don’t kill Radovan, he will kill me.”

According to Jerome Safi, he met Viljoen some time ago when he was approached with possible business deals. “Peet brought me numerous illegal deals involving municipal properties,” says Krejcir.

It was during one of those meetings that Viljoen allegedly wanted to know from him how he could upset Krejcir enough to have Moti killed. “He was hoping that Moti’s death would mean his problems with his court case would go away.”

Krejcir confirmed that Viljoen approached him for the first time a month ago, with claims that Moti told him they were partners importing cars into the country and abusing his name to create business for him.

“He wanted to make me angry with Zunaid,” Krejcir said.

He then insisted Viljoen take a polygraph test to find out if he was lying. “I am waiting for the final results,” Krejcir said.

dewetp@thenewage.co.za