SIU wants 506 companies and individuals blacklisted by Treasury

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has referred 506 companies and people to be blacklisted by the National Treasury due to their involvement in malfeasance.

This was revealed in a report by the SIU during a meeting of parliament's standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday.

It shows that Gauteng has the highest number of referrals, with 202, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 131. The Free State and Limpopo have 88 each. The North West had one referral.

According to a Treasury report presented in the same meeting, there are 143 blacklisted companies and shareholders on its database.

Twenty-six of those have been blacklisted for a period of between one to three years. Another 94 have been blacklisted for between four and six years. The remaining 23 have been blacklisted for between seven and 10 years.

The individuals or companies are not allowed to do business with the state in any capacity.

Deputy finance minister David Masondo said the blacklisting of companies relates to corruption, non-performance and other malpractices while doing business with the state.

“The blacklisting is an important step in fighting corruption and to entrench a culture of good governance throughout the state and its entities.

“There are usually two reasons why companies are blacklisted by government. First, when companies, suppliers, individuals, [providers] of goods and services engage in corrupt and other malpractices such as non-performance and irregular activities.

“Second, when a court has ruled that a company should be blacklisted.”

Companies were blacklisted mainly for underperformance, incomplete projects and corruption.

MPs queried why there was a large discrepancy between the number of companies referred by the SIU for blacklisting and the number of companies blacklisted by the Treasury.

The meeting resolved to approach the provinces to ask about the referrals by the SIU, focusing mainly on Gauteng and KZN.

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