Cape Town - The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been told that it must lobby for amendments to the SIU Act if it wants more powers to compel institutions to act on its reports within specific time frames.
This advice came from Parliament’s portfolio committee on co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) following a briefing by the SIU and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) on corruption and Covid-19-related cases in local government.
Committee chairperson Fikile Xasa (ANC) said: “The committee’s interaction with the SIU revealed a gap in terms of its existing power, as the SIU is unable to ensure that its reports are acted upon by the organs of state involved.”
Xasa said the committee had noted that at local government level the impact of corruption on service delivery was quite serious and that the poor monitoring of these cases had contributed significantly to delays in finalising them.
He said undue delays in finalising corruption cases had prompted the committee to convene quarterly meetings with law enforcement agencies and Cogta, to deliberate on progress relating to general investigations in local government as a mechanism to ensure accountability for the delays.
Among the cases the SIU is investigating is one against the City for the irregular awarding of contracts for the Strandfontein temporary homeless shelter worth R52 million.
In his presentation to the committee, SIU head advocate Andy Mothibi said that the investigation revealed that the supply chain management process followed by the City in sourcing the various items and services required was irregular and as such should be set aside.
He said that while the investigation was ongoing, the SIU was getting advice on the viability of civil action and recovery. The Saldanha Bay Municipality is also being investigated with regard to an irregular 2017 security contract for R6 million which Mothibi said was allegedly inflated to R13 million irregularly and without due process.
Meanwhile, Hawks head Godfrey Lebeya made a presentation to the committee on the status of all section 106 investigations which cover non-performance and maladministration. Lebeya admitted that many of the matters had been delayed and commented that some of the issues under investigation had been under the microscope for longer than the Hawks had been in existence.
This led the committee to request the Hawks to provide it with a detailed report on the corruption cases, including figures quantifying their cumulative monetary value.
Xasa said: “The committee is unhappy with the generic overview of corruption cases it received from the Hawks.”
He said the committee had been left in the dark on the progress achieved in the cases the Hawks previously reported they were investigating.