South Africa has been ranked as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to big business bribing foreign governments. This was revealed at the National Anti-Corruption Forum (NACF) meeting in Pretoria on Tuesday ahead of International Anti-Corruption Day on Saturday.
Adding to the country's corruption woes is that there are few, if any, mechanisms in place to deal with the tens of thousands of corruption reports received by government and few means to protect whistle-blowers.
The meeting, which was the last NACF meeting for the year, comes as Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi admitted there had been few, if any, investigation means available to deal with thousands of corruption calls received by the national anti-corruption hotline (NACH) each year.
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Since September 2004, the NACH, managed by the Public Service Commission, has received 2 296 calls, but have only been able to deal with 830 of the allegations.
| 'Haiti is the most corrupt country in the world' |
The 830 investigations have resulted in the dismissal of 20 officials from the public service and the suspension of 17 employees pending the outcome of the investigations.
The Social Development Department corruption hotline received 40 168 corruption allegations while the South African Revenue Services hotline received 40 715 corruption reports since 2004.
Fraser-Moleketi, who said 2006 had been a positive year fighting corruption, claimed in a statement the Transparency International Bribe Payer's Index 2006 (TIBPI) had ranked South Africa 24th out of 30 countries, "indicating there is a strong possibility South African businesses will bribe foreign officials in other countries".
Haiti is the most corrupt country in the world, according to the 2006 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Finland was found to be the least corrupt.
Fraser-Moleketi said the ranking was extremely worrying and was being addressed through various big business forums "with business acknowledging that it is its responsibility to put in place measures to ensure accountability in the business environment".
She said she was extremely worried about the problems in protecting whistle-blowers.
Once a corruption allegation was received, the report was passed on to the provincial governments "where the problems come in".
"It is here that we are experiencing major problems as there are few, if any, investigation tools available to different departments to stamp out corruption," Fraser-Moleketi said. Investigative capabilities were desperately needed to stop corruption.
To deal with corruption within the public sector, a total of 263 officials at national, provincial and local government level had been trained by the South African Management Development Institute.
Commenting on South Africa's TIBPI ranking, Business Against Crime's advocate Simi Pillay-van-Graan said they would be launching a code of conduct for businesses which would force companies and their employees to adhere to good business practices.
Anyone wanting to report corruption can contact the NACH on 0800 701 701.
- This article was originally published on page 2 of Pretoria News on December 06, 2006
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