Cape Town - The National Treasury has set its sights on taking punitive administrative action against companies and individuals who have actively facilitated corrupt and irregular procurement activities.
Delivering his medium term budget policy statement (MTBPS) speech on Wednesday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said the first of these was Bain who has been slapped with a 10-year ban from tendering with the state after it had been implicated in state capture.
While the company has recently said it disagreed with the ban and was considering other options in response to the government's decision, Godongwana said government would continue to act against companies and individuals who facilitated corrupt and irregular procurement activities.
He said more funds would be added in 2023 to the budgets of NPA, the SIU, Financial Intelligence Centre and SARS to improve the fight against corruption and advance the Zondo Commission’s recommendations.
“These resources will help the institutions identify sophisticated financial crimes, prosecute offenders and recover money and assets that are proceeds of fraud and corruption,” the department’s budget document said.
Godongwana said the government would protect honest accounting officers and authorities who made decisions in good faith from criminal prosecution and civil litigation
“In this regard we will strengthen the auditing and preventative control systems to enable managers to manage while putting mechanisms in place to hold them accountable.”
He noted the Zondo Commission made recommendations aimed at strengthening institutional, governance and accountability mechanisms.
The MTBS document said the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development had re-prioritised funds for the Financial Intelligence Centre to implement recommendations from the Zondo Commission and the Financial Action Task Force.
“Additional re-prioritisation includes funding for court security, replacing computer equipment, procuring vehicles for provinces and enhancing capacity in the Thuthuzela centres.”
It said funding would also be allocated to increase capacity in specialised tax units and the Independent Directorate, procure specialist prosecution services for complex matters, appoint forensic auditors and accountants to deal with high priority asset forfeiture matters as well as establish a digital forensic data centre and finance increased witness protection operational costs.
“Additional funding will enable the FIC to increase its human resource capacity and help the SIU initiate civil litigation following state capture commission recommendations,” the report said.
The government would allocate additional resources to security forces to take the fight to those who were a threat to peace.
This includes supporting the police to recruit an additional 15 000 constables over the next three years and additional funding for the Department of Defence and Home Affairs Department to enhance the country’s security and territorial integrity.
“The defence funding also provides for the procurement of equipment and technology that will support operations and for the repair and maintenance of navy defence systems to improve maritime security.”
Cape Times