DCEC receives 75 COVID-19 'corruption' reports
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday January 25, 2022 06:00
DCEC’s acting public relations officer, Tshepie Otladisang told The Monitor that to date they have received 75 COVID-19 graft allegations reports. “Currently there are 22 cases that are still under investigation, one sent to DPP (Directorate of Public Prosecutions) for consideration of evidence and possible prosecution and investigations were concluded in eight cases but did not disclose any criminal conduct,” she said.
Otladisang said the Directorate has since enhanced its turnaround time on investigations in an attempt to deal with their backlog and earn public trust in the process. “We have also adopted a parallel investigation strategy that targets both the proceeds of crime and criminal conduct (predicate offense); continue to receive and investigate any allegation that discloses indicators of corruption; conduct transaction monitoring and corruption risk audits in ministries and public bodies and advise on mitigation; and educate the public on the effects of corruption and how they can participate in the fight against corruption,” she said. In June 2021, DCEC director general, Tymon Katlholo revealed that the graft buster had registered 69 COVID-19 corruption related cases from April 2020 to May 2021. He told the Parliamentary Committee in governance and oversight that the advent of COVID-19, coupled with the fact that the Directorate is lagging behind in digitisation, stretch the already limited resources even further.
Meanwhile, The Monitor has also noticed that a good number of retroactive approvals relating to COVID-19 tenders were rejected by the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB).
Responding to a questionnaire from this publication, PPADB said most of such tenders were not urgent and necessary hence the non approval. “In terms of Section 44 (2) and (3) of the PPADB Act as read with Section 3 of the PPADB (Retroactive Approvals) Order of 2012, the Board may by resolution approve, retroactively, a bid or invitation to tender issued by a procuring or a disposing entity where the job to be performed by a selected contractor or the service to be provided by a selected service provider is urgent and necessary: (a) to protect life; or (b) to protect the environment,” PPADB Public Relations and Education Manager Charles Keikotlhae said. “In most of these non approvals, the request for retroactive approval is not in line with the above cited provisions,” he added.