SIU says State institutions its probing owe it at least R1bn

CAPE TOWN - The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) says it is owed at least R1 billion by the State institutions it is probing.

SIU head Andy Mothibi said departments are refusing to pay the corruption-busting agency, questioning the work that is being done.

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On Wednesday, the SIU signed a cooperation agreement with Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts to facilitate more referrals for investigation that often emerged from the findings of the Auditor-General.

The SIU reported its findings directly to the president, but Mothibi said in attempts to get State departments to pay for their services, invoices were accompanied by progress reports on investigations.

“Still in the face of that, there’s still a lack of payment, and that just really indicates on a bigger scale that the funding model really requires review.”

Mothibi said he hoped the next Parliament would consider changes to the SIU Act.

He further explained that the unit is not only focused on investigating State capture.

“Whether you are colluding to defraud, colluding to corrupt, colluding for maladministration, colluding for malpractice, we have to make sure we bring out appropriate findings.”

The SIU does only want to uncover corruption but prevent the State from bleeding even more money as a result of collusion, added Mothibi.