Anti-graft team to hand over its report

THE HAWKS, National Prosecuting Authority, State Security Agency and other government departments that form the anti-corruption task team were today due to table their report on investigations into state-owned entities.

Standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) chairperson Themba Godi said yesterday that the report would give a picture of the extent of corruption in SOEs.

Scopa asked for the report when the anti-corruption task team appeared before MPs two weeks ago.

He confirmed that Hawks head Lieutenant-General Berning Ntlemeza would give the report to the committee.

Eskom and state arms manufacturer Denel have been investigated by the National Treasury on some of the deals involving the Gupta family.

A few weeks ago, Eskom was ordered to hand over documents to the National Treasury on its probe into coal contracts involving the Guptaowned Tegeta firm.

Denel has been fighting the Treasury on its refusal to sign off on the joint venture with a Gupta-linked company, VR Laser. Denel told Parliament that the venture was worth about R400 million.

Godi said they wanted the investigations into SOEs to stretch back to 2009, when the task team was formed.

When the team appeared before Parliament two weeks ago, it told Scopa it had probed corruption cases worth about R10.5bn involving more than 460 officials across the state.

“Their due date was last week Wednesday. By mutual agreement we postponed to tomorrow (today),” said Godi.

“We wanted them to give us case numbers and the main charges,” he said.

This information would help Scopa to understand the nature of the cases that law enforcement agencies were investigating at SOEs.

Godi said they also wanted to understand the extent of the problem and whether the task team was effective in clamping down on corruption.

When the task team last came before Parliament, Ntlemeza was put under pressure by MPs, leading to him fumbling some of the answers.