Govt buries graft probe

GAUTENG: FORENSIC AUDIT INTO R500M CORRUPTION HIDDEN

- Daniel Steyn & Raymond Joseph

The Gauteng department of social development, which pays out almost R2 billion in annual funding to non-profit organisations serving the province's most vulnerable residents, has failed to act decisively on corruption.

Forensic reports finalised five years ago by Bowmans, a law firm, and BDO, an auditing firm, found evidence of fraud and corruption by department officials and a handful of non-profit organisations and businesspeople. But those implicated remain unpunished.

At least R500 million was irregularly paid by the department for school uniforms, dignity packs and food parcels; money which ultimately made its way to companies that had not gone through a tender process.

The forensic reports, which were finalised in 2019, recommended disciplinary action against officials, blacklisting of companies and certain non-profit organisations, and further investigation by the Hawks. But these recommendations were largely ignored by the Gauteng government until recently.

An attempt by the previous MEC, Mbali Hlophe, who served between October 2022 and June 2024, to reignite the investigation failed to successfully discipline implicated officials.

Under Hlophe, 13 officials were suspended between September 2023 and February 2024 but have since returned to work after the department failed to hold disciplinary hearings. Several officials implicated in the reports were never suspended.

Control over funding was centralised to the office of the head of department Matilda Gasela, herself accused of fraud. This resulted in catastrophic delays to the 2024 non-profit funding process, leaving hundreds of organisations without subsidies for months.