The Times Editorial: The Special Investigating Unit has once again been called to investigate a case of corruption within the state, this time in the public service and administration services Seta.
Briefing parliament yesterday, Public Service and Administration minister Richard Baloyi, said he had decided to rope in the SIU following a three-year preliminary forensic investigation that was conducted by a top auditing firm between 2007 and 2010.
Baloyi said the SIU will probe potential fraud amounting to more than R10-million at the public services SETA.
Though the decision by the minister to rope in the SIU is welcomed, it raises questions on the time taken to bring those fingered by the investigations to book.
The three-year investigation into the Seta by PricewaterhouseCoopers has run its course, government is now forced to seek the help of the SIU to recover the missing R10-million which, according to Themba Mohambi, the interim Seta administrator, went into dubious bank accounts.
What has not been made clear by Baloyi and his department is how much of taxpayers' money has been spent to hire an outside agency to eventuallypursue a case that at the end must be referred back to a state agency to complete.
This money should be used to empower state agencies to be able to pursue all corruption cases.
Why appoint an agency that does not have legal powers to search and seize bank accounts of private citizens or of companies suspected of corruption?
The SIU, which has cracked a number of corruption-related cases, should have been involved from day one.
President Jacob Zuma's cabinet should begin to discuss ways to fight corruption without losing millions of rands to private agencies.
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