corruption – Page 6

Corruption seen on the rise: study

More than half of respondents in a global corruption survey released Tuesday think that graft has worsened over the past two years, and a quarter reported having paid officials a bribe in the last 12 months.

The survey by Berlin-based non-profit group Transparency International also found that people have least trust in institutions meant to help or protect them, including police, the courts and political parties.

Respondents also believed official anti-corruption efforts had deteriorated since the 2008 start of the world financial and economic crisis.

The group’s Global Corruption Barometer 2013 is the world’s largest public opinion survey on corruption. It surveyed 114,000 people in 107 countries, the group said.

It found that 27 per cent of respondents had said they had paid a bribe to a member of a public service or institution in the past 12 months, revealing no improvement from previous surveys.

The group pointed to a link between poverty and graft. Eight of the 10 countries with the highest bribery rates are African, said a Transparency spokesman.

In 36 countries, respondents viewed police as the most corrupt, while 20 countries view the judiciary as the most graft-ridden. In 51 countries political parties were seen as the most corrupt institution.

People’s appraisal of government efforts to stop corruption was worse than before the financial crisis began in 2008, falling to 22 percent now from 31 per cent then.

Still, the group said that there was a growing will to fight back, with two-thirds of those who were asked to pay a bribe saying they had refused.

“Bribe paying levels remain very high worldwide, but people believe they have the power to stop corruption and the number of those willing to combat the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery is significant,” said Huguette Labelle, chair of Transparency International.

She added that “governments need to make sure that there are strong, independent and well-resourced institutions to prevent and redress corruption. Too many people are harmed when these core institutions and basic services are undermined by the scourge of corruption.” – AFP

Corrupt Cape policeman’s trial continues today

The trial of a Western Cape constable who tried to extort money from a taxi driver allegedly caught with perlemoen continues in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Friday.

Constable Mjatya Bukani, 35, and a police reservist were on patrol on December 8, 2010, when they searched a taxi driven by Wanana Gwadino and allegedly found a bag of perlemoen.

Bukani apparently demanded money from Gwadino, turning down his first offer of R300, but accepting a second offer of R500.

Bukani later allegedly demanded R500 more, which Gwadino withdrew from an ATM.

According to the charge sheet, Gwadino and his two passengers were locked in a holding cell, and were later released without being charged.

Bukani and the reservist have pleaded not guilty to a count of extortion, and an alternative count of corruption. – Sapa

Joemat-Pettersson denies kickbacks over game-farm sale

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson has refuted a media report that she received kickbacks, her office said on Monday.

The allegations in the Sunday Times that Joemat-Pettersson benefited from a game-farm sale were “unsubstantiated and regrettable”, her spokeswoman Palesa Mokomele said in a statement.

“Those who know Minister Joemat-Pettersson know her to be a people orientated leader who consistently serves others and strives for the development of rural women and rural communities,” Mokomele said.

“The said farm was for the benefit of rural women through skills development and employment creation.”

The Sunday Times reported that Joemat-Pettersson was being investigated for allegedly taking a kickback for arranging the purchase of a R18 million game farm for disadvantaged women.

According to the report, she was allegedly paid R100,000 in 2006 for her efforts in closing the purchase of Sunset Game Lodge, outside Douglas, while she was MEC in the Northern Cape.

Joemat-Pettersson and the lawyer who facilitated the deal, Monica du Toit, are the focus of an investigation by the Asset Forfeiture Unit and the Special Investigation Unit, the Sunday Times reported.

Mokomele said Joemat-Pettersson would fully co-operate with any investigation into the matter.

“The minister will request that both the Parliamentary Ethics Committee and the African National Congress’s integrity committee investigate all allegations levelled against her and her conduct,” said Mokomele. – Sapa

1000 South African policemen arrested for crimes

One thousand police officials have been arrested for crime in the past three years, Gauteng police commissioner Mzwandile Petros said on Thursday.

The arrests were made between September 2010 and April this year, he said at a New Age breakfast on government’s drug clean-up campaign.

With a police station comprising about 300 officials, this meant three stations had in effect been closed down.

Petros said this would not deter police management from its drive to clean up the service.

“It takes two years to train a police official. Even if we are left with 10, or one police official, that is how far we are going to take the campaign,” he said. – Sapa

‘My ANC donation in exchange for your government contract’

The KwaZulu-Natal government wanted a contract with a Cape Town-based Uruguayan businessman to be concluded quickly so he could make a donation to the ANC, the Mercury reported on Wednesday.

Former KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni allegedly told this to Kantha Padayachee, who is challenging her suspension from the provincial health department in the Labour Court.

Padayachee, who was the health department’s legal services general manager, told the court that Nkonyeni told her about the donation when she raised concerns about the contract for oxygen-generating plants.

“She told me she [Nkonyeni] had just become the treasurer of the ANC in the province and was under pressure to conclude the contract [with Intaka] so the ANC could receive the donation,” Padayachee was quoted as saying by the Mercury.

According to the paper, Padayachee was in court fighting her three-year suspension from the department.

She claims she was suspended after being interviewed by the Hawks in connection with a corruption case.

In the case, Uruguayan businessman Gaston Savoi and several senior KwaZulu-Natal government employees were charged with racketeering, fraud, and money laundering.

The Mercury reported that the State alleged Savoi made a R1 million donation to the ANC to secure the contract to supply water purification and oxygen-generating plants to the provincial departments of local government and health.

Nkonyeni, who was now the speaker in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, was initially charged, but these charges were withdrawn in October. The health department said Padayachee was suspended after misconduct charges were brought against her. – Sapa

Eastern Cape mayor blows R800 000 on ‘domestic travel events’

Buffalo City mayor Zukiswa Ncitha spent almost R800,000 of ratepayers’ money on domestic travel for events, most of which did not appear on her official diary, Dispatch Online reported on Wednesday.

The money was reportedly spent on luxury vehicles and hotel accommodation around the country.

Documents which the Dispatch said it had obtained showed that some of Ncitha’s trips, including one which cost more than R12,000, were made while she was in meetings at her East London City Hall offices.

The trips were billed under difference references — mayor Zukiswa Ncitha, Z Ncitha, M Ncitha, and Z Ncitha mayor.

Her son, Zukile, who carries the same initials as her, also works for the Buffalo City metro, according to the report.

Contacted for comment by the Dispatch, Ncitha dismissed any suggestion that her son or any of her family might have used her mayoral travel budget. – Sapa

Three Cape Town policemen appear for theft and extortion

Three policemen accused of theft and extortion appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Thursday.

They allegedly kicked down Anton Pillay’s door last February and confiscated a plastic bank bag containing 15 sachets of tik and R1650, he told the court.

He said the policemen remarked that he had a lot of money, and said they would let him go if he gave them R100 each. He did so and was allowed to leave.

Pillay was testifying in the trial of Constable Nkosinathi Mdiya, Warrant Officer Mogamat Meniers and Sergeant Heinrich Gordon, all of whom have plead not guilty.

Mdiya is charged with two counts of theft, two of robbery and one of extortion; Meniers is charged with one count of theft and one of corruption; and Gordon faces three theft counts, two of corruption, two of extortion, and two of robbery.

Pillay told the court he lived in an informal settlement in Diep River, and that his girlfriend went to the police after an argument.

He said he was asleep, and groggy from drugs, when the police knocked on his shack door, then smashed it down.

Asked by prosecutor Xolile Jonas what happened to the drugs, he said: “I don’t know, and did not care. I just wanted to be out of the police station.”

He said no investigation docket was opened against him.

Asked why he laid charges against Meniers and Gordon, he said: “They had arrested me before on other charges, and I thought it wrong of them to take my money like that”.

Defence attorney Shantell Morgan said Meniers would tell the court that Pillay’s girlfriend went to the police because he was holding her child hostage, and that their visit to his home had nothing to do with drugs or money.

“My client will say that when they arrived at your shack they heard a child screaming behind the locked shack door and that they kicked down the door because Pillay refused to open it.”

Pillay denied taking the child hostage.

The case was postponed until September 16. – Sapa

70% of sales staff in South Africa see corruption, bribery in their company

Irregular financial reporting is becoming a worry for corporate South Africa with recent research showing a greater awareness among directors and senior managers of the practice. Other investigations are highlighting a growing mistrust among staff members in big companies and a developing gulf between management and employees.

New research on integrity and employee satisfaction by iFacts, a leader in screening, information verification and integrity testing, show that only 50% of staff members in big companies trust one another whilst around half feel that they get on with management. “Our investigations illustrate that although there is a general understanding of company policy and compliance 47% of employees do not believe their firm’s anti-corruption policy is effective,” says iFacts MD Jenny Reid. “Alarmingly, close to 70% of sales staff consider bribery and other corrupt practices to be rife”.

iFacts findings are broadly in sync with Ernst and Young’s 2013 fraud survey which notes that 42% of board directors and senior managers are aware of some irregular financial reporting in their company whilst 57% feel that this practice is widespread in South Africa. Its results also indicate that the risk of misreporting financial information appears compounded by the fact that 79% of managers feel that they need to deliver better financial results for the company but there is increased pressure on remuneration with 23% having pay freezes and 17% having their bonuses removed.

“iFacts research has also shown that management, as opposed to employees, are the single greatest source of white collar fraud in organisations,” says Ms Reid. “Verification of the documentation presented by applicants at the interview stage, whether for management or other staff positions, can prevent much of the fraud from taking place. But companies need to have management tools in place to continuously measurement commitment to company policies.”

Post employment screening will also help to pro-actively detect fraud.

“In 21% of cases where fraud has been committed, the guilty parties evidenced an obvious change in lifestyle, driving better cars and having more material goods than before, things which could easily have been spotted if the company had only looked,” she says.

Bribe was a ‘gesture of goodwill’

An environment official was told that the money a Stellenbosch property developer gave him was not a bribe, but a token of goodwill, a Cape Town court heard on Wednesday.

Luxolo Kula was testifying in the trial of Asrin Properties’ director Shiraz Hassan in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court.

He told the court Hassan gave him the money during a meeting at a Cape Town coffee shop last April.

“I immediately informed Hassan that I could not accept it,” he said.

“[Hassan] insisted that I keep it and urged me to consider it a token of goodwill, and not as a bribe.”

Hassan has pleaded not guilty to a charge of corruption.

Kula told the court Asrin Properties was busy with a development outside Stellenbosch. Asrin had taken over the project from another developer.

He said the processing of an application filed by Hassan to amend the original environmental authorisation was delayed because it went to the wrong section in the department as a result of an incorrect signature.

Kula was appointed as case officer responsible for resolving the problem.

At the coffee shop, Hassan complained about the delay and allegedly told Kula he would look after him if he expedited the matter. Kula said he ignored the remark.

However, as he was gathering his papers and files afterwards, he found a small transparent bag of money containing R500 in R100 notes.

At Hassan’s insistence, he took the money, but reported the incident to his supervisor, who was shocked, and went to one of the department’s directors. The director called the police and photocopied the banknotes. Kula made an affidavit about what had happened.

Asked by prosecutor Xolile Jonas what he thought when he was given the money, Kula answered: “I considered it inappropriate and said I could not accept it.”

Asked what his reaction would be if Hassan denied the incident, Kula said: “When I lifted the files to leave, and saw the plastic container with money in it, I said I could not take money and he said I must not take it as a bribe, but as his gesture of goodwill.”

The case continues on 4 October. – Sapa

Top cops bust for huge heists

Crime intelligence policemen – some of whom have the country’s highest security clearances – have been arrested after being linked to deadly cash-in-transit heists involving millions.

The arrests of two crime intelligence officers brings to an end a three-year undercover operation.

Four other crime intelligence officers are being investigated and three civilians have been arrested.

The operation mounted against the officers – whose jobs included the assessment of threats to the state – was led by the Hawks and involved the cooperation of cash-management companies.

The policemen are believed to have planned some of the biggest cash heists in South Africa.

According to police sources, the arrested officers were believed to have been planning what would have been one of South Africa’s biggest heists, on heavily guarded trucks transporting cash and gold bullion to the Reserve Bank, in Pretoria.

The police breakthrough came after a crime intelligence captain known as ”Mr KGB” was arrested on Saturday night near the Durban beachfront, hours before he was to have competed in the Comrades Marathon.

The officer – the ringleader, according to police and cash-in-transit company sources – was wanted in connection with an attack on a Protea Coin cash-in-transit van in the Free State town of Sasolburg in February. In all, R3-million was stolen and none of it has been recovered.

Another officer was arrested last week.

The two will appear in the Sasolburg Magistrate’s Court tomorrow along with three other men wanted for a spate of armed robberies that claimed several lives.

Police sources said yesterday that the arrested officers’ jobs involved intelligence gathering and threat assessments of attacks on cash-in-transit trucks and on vehicles carrying gold or platinum.

Senior police officers said the heads of cash-management companies and the national police commissioner, Riah Phiyega, were scheduled to meet later this week to discuss the implications of the arrest of officers with top security clearances.

Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko confirmed the policemen’s arrests on armed robbery and attempted murder charges.

He would not say whether more police officers faced arrest.

“The case is sensitive. We cannot elaborate on what had [been] or is being planned.

“What I can say is that the policemen allegedly used their work knowledge, which involved security assessments, to commit crime,” Ramaloko said. – timeslive.co.za

How $700 million in Katrina relief money went missing

Where did all the money go?

“Your guess is as good as mine,” David Montoya, the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, says of $700 million in missing taxpayer money that Louisiana homeowners were given in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to elevate and protect their homes from future storms.

A new report released from the inspector general’s office shows that more than 24,000 homeowners who received grants of up to $30,000 to elevate their homes either misspent or pocketed the money.

“The fact of the matter is that the money they received was for a specific purpose and the specific purpose was to elevate these homes to avoid future catastrophes,” Montoya tells Power Players.

He rates the home elevation program as little more than a complete failure.

“Considering there was just under $1 billion earmarked for this particular program and there’s $700 million that wasn’t used for that, I’d give it a very low D,” he says.

But the lessons learned from the failed home elevation project provides a useful roadmap as Congress moves to offer recovery funds to victims of Hurricane Sandy.

“Clearly, to give money out on the front end right after a disaster, when many of these people lost everything, with a promise to do something down the road, I think is counterproductive to what the program was designed to do,” says Montoya.

Montoya says his office will recommend that, for future disaster relief programs, funds are disbursed to individuals only after the project has been completed.

To hear more of the interview with the inspector general, including his explanation of why the government likely will never get the money back, check out this episode of Power Players. – YahooNews

Four men, including policeman, arrested for robbery

Four men, including a police officer, were arrested as they allegedly tried to rob a house in Jeppe, Johannesburg police said on Thursday.

They were caught when they arrived at the house belonging to a businessman on Macdonald Street, after police were tipped off on Wednesday morning, Lt-Col Lungelo Dlamini said.

The men were found in possession of several items of police equipment and uniforms. A crime scene jacket, handcuffs, a fraudulent police identity certificate, handcuffs, a service pistol, a shocking stick with police identification marks, and nine cellphones were among the items seized. Three vehicles were impounded.

One of the men was a policeman based at the Johannesburg Central police station.

They were expected to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday on charges of conspiracy to commit house robbery and impersonating police. Investigations were continuing to establish if they could be linked to other crimes. – Sapa

Corrupt South African prosecutor arrested

The South African Police Service reports that yesterday, 8 October 2012, Ladysmith detectives arrested a 37-year-old Public Prosecutor at the Ladysmith Magistrates’ Court for corruption.

It is alleged that the prosecutor was working at a Traffic Offences court when he approached traffic offenders waiting to address the court for a reduction of their traffic fines. The prosecutor allegedly asked three of the offenders for cash in exchange for removing their names from the court roll. The three reported the matter to the police and the prosecutor was arrested.

He was charged for three counts of corruption and three counts of defeating the ends of justice and is due to appear in Ladysmith Magistrates’ Court soon.

DA backs Malema

Cape Town – The official opposition in Parliament, the DA, has backed Julius Malema’s demand that President Jacob Zuma stand trial for the multiple criminal charges he has faced.

On Wednesday, Malema demanded that Zuma should still face the charges in open court, instead of “running away” from the courts.

“Zuma has 700 charges against him. I only have one,” Malema said.

The axed ANC Youth League leader was granted R10 000 bail in the Polokwane Regional Court on Wednesday where he was charged with money laundering in connection with a R52 million tender in Limpopo.Malema claimed the charge was politically motivated.

DA federal chairman and correctional services spokesman James Selfe said on Wednesday: “We’re in entire agreement. That’s why we’ve gone to court on numerous occasions to have the decision to drop the charges against Mr Zuma reviewed.

“It was meant to have been the best-prepared case in history, considering all the millions of rand that had been spent in preparation. It was clear that there were members of the NPA

[National Prosecuting Authority] who believed they had a solid case against Mr Zuma. And the place to disprove that case was in open court, not by cutting deals,” Selfe charged.

“So as much the DA would disagree with much of what Mr Malema says on other matters, on this, at least, he is entirely correct. Or, more correctly, he agrees with us.”

In December 2007, Zuma was charged with various counts of racketeering, money-laundering, corruption and fraud. But in 2009, the NPA said while the merits of the case remained intact, alleged political interference and abuse of process rendered the continuation of the trial “unconscionable”.

The DA had earlier won a court case giving it access to the so-called spy tapes which formed the basis for charges to be dropped against Zuma. – Cape Argus