Durban — The National Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Rodney de Kock has called for collaboration within all the crime-fighting institutions to win the war against fraud and corruption.
De Kock was a keynote speaker at the Anti-Fraud and Corruption Summit jointly organised by eThekwini Municipality and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in Durban, on Thursday.
Speaking at the event, the former Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions for 16 years, said the lack of collaboration within the institutions that were tasked to fight corruption was one of the major reasons why corruption was not being detected and prevented, calling for collaboration between these structures as well as government leadership.
Another major factor cited by De Kock was the lack of ethics in the government and private sector leadership, saying in most cases corruption starts at the top where you find leadership influencing procurement decisions for kickbacks.
He said leadership as the face of public and private institutions must be ethical to prevent fraud and corruption.
He added that it would make law enforcement’s job easier when the heads of those institutions act faster and report suspicious transactions. He cited procurement as the bedrock of corruption where officials influenced which companies get tenders in order to get kickbacks, adding that in most cases those companies favoured were linked to the employees.
“Corruption is difficult to prove because it is planned behind closed doors but if there is enough collaboration between us as law enforcement agencies as well as ethical leadership in the public and private institutions, corruption can be prevented. Institutions’ leadership must safeguard procurement because corruption is taking place there. This must be done ethically and transparently," said De Kock.
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners president Len Coetzee commended eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba for being the first mayor of eThekwini in many years to attend the anti-fraud summit, organised by the body, adding that it proved how serious he was about fighting corruption.
Speaking also at the summit eThekwini Municipality Financial Misconduct Board chairperson Advocate Makhosini Nkosi branded municipalities as a bedrock of corruption.
Nkosi, a former Newcastle Municipality mayor in the north-west of KwaZulu-Natal said the officials were corrupt to a point that they completely lost their conscience.
Nkosi said it was a common cause in the municipalities to find a junior manager living an expensive lifestyle that surpasses that of the municipal manager.
“I say this without any fear of contradiction that there is a high level of corruption in the municipality. I was once an employee of the municipality myself, so I know better what is going on there,” said Nkosi.
The summit was attended by senior officials from the crime-fighting institutions including De Kock, KwaZulu-Natal Director of Public Prosecutions Adv. Elaine Harrison, the provincial head of the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations (Hawks) Major General Lesetja Senona and many forensic investigators.
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