SIU owed over R1bn by govt depts, municipalities & agencies it investigated

CAPE TOWN - The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) said it’s owed over a billion rand by government departments, municipalities and agencies that it’s been investigating.

SIU head, Andy Mothibi, said that the non-payment for services was a perennial headache for the agency and the funding model for the institution needed to change.

Presenting its annual report to Parliament on Tuesday, the anti-corruption agency revealed that over the last four years it had saved the state almost R43 billion.

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Mothibi has appealed to Parliament’s justice committee to assist in the review of the way the institution was funded.

He has also sounded the alarm about the impact that the uncollected debt could have.

"If that debt is not collected, it might end up negatively affecting our operations. It's not doing that at the moment because we are really ensuring that our financial management is sound. But there is a risk that if it's not collected it might affect."

Mothibi said that given the non-payment for its services, it could not endure any budget cuts that may be imposed by the Treasury, which is helping the SIU to retrieve the money owing to it.

The Treasury has, meanwhile, condoned the SIU holding on to its budget surplus of R833 million from the last financial year to be used for future operations.