Johannesburg - Corruption Watch (CW) has criticised politicians, public servants and business people for “sticking their hands into the public purse” after it was revealed that the organisation had received about 11 whistle-blower reports a day during 2020.
CW said on Thursday that that the nonprofit organisation’s annual report, titled From Crisis to Action, reflected that in 2020 the public was increasingly outraged by rampant corruption in relation to the procurement and distribution of essential goods and services, including relief packages, as well as cases of police and army brutality.
“It is therefore not surprising that in 2020, CW recorded the second highest number of reports of corruption received in a calendar year since its inception in 2012, and, importantly, the highest number of reports implicating the policing and health-care sectors,” the organisation said.
A total of 4 780 incidents of corruption were reported to CW last year and, on average, 11 complaints were received daily from across South Africa, the report revealed.
The majority of reports came from Gauteng, followed by KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape.
“It is with anger and sadness that we also have to report that the corrupt took advantage of the public health crisis to loot the procurement necessitated by Covid-19, and even stooped as low as to steal from the various relief programmes,” executive director of Corruption Watch David Lewis said.
Lewis added that while South Africa united to fight the coronavirus pandemic, some politicians, public servants and business people stuck their hands further into the public purse.
According to the report, the most frequently reported forms of corruption during 2020 was maladministration at 17%, procurement corruption at 16% and fraud at 15%.
These acts of corruption include issues such as compliance issues, procurement irregularities, soliciting of kickbacks and fraudulent activities in various state institutions, agencies and departments, as well as businesses.
The organisation added that of these reports, 11% were allegations of corruption in the SAPS, 6% pointed to corruption in schools, 4% to corruption in the health sector, and 3% to corruption in the awarding of driver’s licenses.
CW also received about 149 reports relating to corruption in the health sector during 2020.
“Under Covid-19, while visits to health-care facilities may have been reduced, the cases of corruption featured in the CW reports centred on procurement corruption, employment corruption, and fraud, counting for 21%, 15% and 11% respectively,” the report said.
The total number of reports related to Covid-19 corruption was 418. The reports stemmed from incidents allegedly committed in critical sectors and institutions, including the Department of Labour’s Temporary Employer Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) benefits, with 37% of the reports, the distribution of food parcels by mainly local municipalities at 20%, and the SAPS at 12%.
Officials in these sectors and institutions, as well as others, allegedly committed corrupt acts relating to maladministration (34%), misappropriation of resources (22%) and procurement corruption (16%).
The Star