ANC engaging in dubious loan scheme: report

Parliament had this week temporarily suspended funding to the ANC after it was found that millions of rands were being used in a dodgy loan scheme, according to a report.

City Press said the funds are meant to allow parties to run constituency offices to bring parliament closer to the people and to give support to members of parliament.

The African National Congress receives more than R130 million and R40 million a year for its constituency fund and its caucus fund respectively.

There were suspect transfers between the two accounts, directly flouting parliamentary rules, the newspaper reported.

The financial statements of the ANC show that in 2009 the party shifted R9.6 million from its constituency account to its caucus account in the form of an unsecured, short-term interest free loan.

In 2010 and 2011, the party's caucus fund – intended to cover running costs for officials and support -- loaned its constituency fund more than R27 million in the same manner. Some of the money was used for a large IT project which was abandoned after the money was spent.

Parliamentary policy says parties are not allowed to make loans from their parliamentary allowances.

Parliament confirmed this week that failure to comply with its rules resulted in ANC's funding being suspended, according to the City Press.

A parliamentary spokesman told the newspaper that any party with a negative audit outcome would have its funding suspended until a parliamentary accountant received a satisfactory explanation or a plan on how issues would be corrected in the future.

The spokesman said funding had since been re-instated, but did not give a reason for it.

Another report by the City Press says investigation has linked 115 senior police managers to possible tender fraud, according to reports on Sunday.

The probe had identified 215 instances of possible conflict of interest in the awarding of the tenders by police senior management, the newspaper reported.

Some of the 115 police officials were directors or shareholders in companies, which were paid up to R50 million by the South African Police Service, said Special Investigation Unit spokeswoman Marika Muller.

The investigation also found irregularities in the building and maintenance of 33 police stations, she said.

Investigations would be concluded in 2013, according to the report.