By: Kaya 959 News
The Gauteng Provincial Government has spent R63.8-million on reports to investigate suspected corruption, but not a single one of these reports has been made public.
This was revealed by Premier David Makhura in a written reply to questions put forward by the DA’s Jack Bloom.
According to Makhura, the investigations were done by 23 forensic and audit companies over the last four years. These companies were chosen from a panel of 35 approved service providers after following an open tender process.
Gobodo Forensic and Investigative Accounting was paid R9.1-million for four reports; School Nutrition Programme (R4.6-million), George Mukhari Hospital (R2.9-million), Metrofile in the Department of Human Set\tlements (R990,000), and Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (R576,000).
READ: Police arrest suspects linked to assassination of Gauteng health official
According to Makhura’s answer, other companies that have scored highly from expensive investigations include Bowmans Gilfillan, which was paid R7.4-million for three investigations, Deloitte was paid R6.1-million for three
investigations, and Sekela Xabiso was paid R5.3-million for five investigations.
Makhura said the completed reports make a total of 1,226 recommendations, of which 394 have been fully implemented, 312 are in progress, and the remaining 520 are being dealt with in meetings between the Premier and
each MEC and Head of Department on an ongoing basis.
He added that 162 criminal cases have been referred to law enforcement agencies, 515 officials have been referred to disciplinary processes, and 128 civil claims have been instituted.
Makhura said steps were underway to ensure the recovery of R600-million lost from irregular conduct, unethical behaviour, corrupt practices or negligence.
Bloom said the burning issue is why none of these costly reports have been made public despite repeated promises that this will be done.
“There needs to be far more transparency on this so that we can judge for ourselves whether appropriate action has been taken. Why are 520 recommendations still not acted on and why are no MECs held accountable for all
this deplorable corruption?” he noted.
Bloom said the DA doubted whether much of the R600-million lost would be recovered as previous attempts to recoup losses have failed dismally.
“More than R1 billion of irregular and wasteful expenditure has been written off already, including R723 million from the Department of Social Development, R124 million from Human Settlements and R83 million from Health,” he said.
