NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTIONS FOR WRITTEN REPLY
18 SEPTEMBER 2009
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1302. Dr H C van Schalkwyk (DA) to ask the Minister for Public Service and
Administration:
1) (a) How many complaints have been recorded at the National
Anti-Corruption Hotline (NACH) since its inception?
(b) How many of these complaints have been investigated in respect
of each financial year up to the latest specified date for which
information is available?
(c) How many (i) officials and (ii) other persons have been (aa)
arrested and (bb) convicted since the inception of the NACH in
each of the financial years up to the latest specified date for
which information is available?
d) How many complaints were received per classification in each of the
financial year up to the specified date?
2) What is the (i) total budget and (ii) breakdown of the budget to the
NACH and what is the (i) total expenditure and (ii) breakdown of
expenditure for the NACH in each of the financial years up to the
latest specified date for which information is available?
3) What are the five most reported irregular acts the NACH has recorded?
REPLY :
(1) (a) A total of 6606 cases of alleged corruption were lodged on the
NACH as at
27 September 2009 and referred to Departments for
investigation.
(b) Table 1 below illustrates the number of cases of alleged
corruption investigated in respect of each financial year up to
27 September 2009.
Table 1: Breakdown of cases of alleged corruption lodged with
the NACH as at 27 September 2009
|FINANCIAL YEAR |2004/|2005/|2006/ |2007/ |2008 |2009/ |TOTAL |
| |2005 |2006 |2007 |2008 |/2009 |2010 | |
|Feedback received|428 | | 523| 580| 282| 9 |2 239 |
| | |417 | | | | | |
|Cases closed |126 | | 203 | 276| 165| 3 | 989 |
| | |216 | | | | | |
c) Fourteen (14) officials have been arrested since the inception
of the NACH.
Three (3) cases resulted in prosecution with officials being
sentenced to prison terms in two of the cases. In a further six
(6) cases prosecution is pending. Prosecution was declined in
five (5) cases. As a result of the successful investigation of
cases, 201 officials were found guilty of misconduct. Of these
cases 29 officials were suspended, 112 officials were given
final written warnings and 60 officials were dismissed. The
successful investigation of cases resulted in the recovery of
R100 million from perpetrators.
(d)
Table 2: Categories of corruption reported to the NACH
|Nature of |Description of allegation |200|
|cases | |4/2|
| | |006|
(2) Table 3 below illustrates the breakdown of the budget to the
NACH and the total expenditure in each of the financial years.
Table 3: Total budget and breakdown of the budget per financial
year (excluding personnel expenditure)
|FINANCIAL YEAR |2004/ |2005/ |2006/ |2007/ |2008 |
| |2005 |2006 |2007 |2008 |/2009 |
|Total expenditure|R1 980 |R2 100 |R2Â 485 |R2Â 144 |R2 100 |
| |000 |000 |000 |000 |000 |
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(3) Based on the overview provided on Table 2 above, the top five
categories of alleged corruption reported through the NACH since its
inception on 1 September 2004 are listed in Table 4.
Table 4: Top five (5) corruption cases
|Nature of cases |Number of alleged corruption |
| |reported |
|Fraud and Bribery |1390 |
|Abuse of Government resources |976 |
|Mismanagement of Government funds |803 |
|Criminal conduct |668 |
|Procurement irregularities |643 |
The most common type of allegations received since the inception of
the Hotline on 1 September 2004 was fraud and bribery, with a total
of 1390 cases.
Of all the cases that were reported to the NACH, 976 cases of alleged
abuse of Government-owned vehicles by public service employees were
reported through the NACH. These include cases where officials drive
Governmentâowned vehicles recklessly and at high speed, theft of
petrol from Government-owned vehicles as well as cases of abuse of
petrol cards. Thirty five percent (35%) of callers in this category
alleged that Government-owned vehicles are being used as taxis for
personal benefit.
A total of 803 cases of alleged corruption concern matters of alleged
mismanagement of Government funds by public officials. Sixteen
percent (16%) of these cases relate to the mismanagement of school
funds by teachers and school principals whilst 10% involves senior
managers giving unlawful instructions to junior officials to
authorize expenditure. Other allegations include irregular and
fruitless expenditure (23%) and non compliance with the operational
policies of a department or public entity (34%).
A total of 647 cases of alleged criminal conduct were reported, and
include:
⪠Assault of inmates by prison warders or by prison gangs at the
instigation of certain prison warders.
⪠Members of the public reporting suspected terrorists or bomb-threats.
⪠Criminal acts by members of the public as well as 419 scams (e-
mail based fraud).
⪠Police being reported for stealing fire arms for private use.
⪠Certain teachers stealing government furniture at schools.
⪠Officials stealing government computers.
⪠Nurses stealing medicines at hospitals.
A total of 643 cases involved procurement irregularities. These cases
involve collusion between a person issuing a tender and an associate
which is often a family member or friends seeking to win the tender.