Covid-19 has been a devastating pandemic in many tactics for South Africa, adding a backlog of allegations of government corruption; however, there are positive aspects the country can take away from this experience, President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
Rampahosa was answering questions in a parliamentary question-and-answer consultation on Thursday, August 27, with a focus on the recent publication of pandemic-related tender documents.
On Wednesday, August 26, the Office of the Director of Procurement (OCPO) released a comprehensive list of all corporations that have been awarded government contracts for the source of goods and similar to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The lists come with Covid-19 procurement data from all provinces, national departments and more than 70 public entities.
“Underneath this dark cloud we can also see a kind of ray of light and from now on we will have to reform our procurement formula so that those who seek to defraud, corrupt and unfairly profit from what the government buys in terms of intelligence. “servicios. no I have more space.
“At the end of the day, when the government spends money, it spends other people’s money. And other people have a right to know what they spent their money on.
Rampahosa said the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to lead to the opening of bidding processes. He said the government would also turn to new technologies, adding synthetic intelligence and blockchain, to help people’s money.
“So, Covid-19, as bad as it is right now, will have produced that wonderful merit where we have drawn a line in the sand where corruption will no longer be tolerated in our country in procurement and prosecutions. “
Ramaphosa said allegations of corruption in the procurement of goods and the country’s reaction to the coronavirus pandemic have sparked outrage among South Africans and members of the executive.
He said South Africans were right about corruption.
“It is shameful that in this time of national crisis, there are corporations and Americans seeking to make scammers profit from our efforts to improve people’s health and save lives.
“As a government, we have taken several steps not only to detect, investigate and prosecute those crimes, but also to prevent corrupt activities.
“To this end, I have legalized the Special Investigation Unit to investigate any allegations of misuse of the Covid-19 budget in all spheres of the state. “
Ramaphosa said the “Titanic” was not yet sinking, but that the government was strengthening its fight against corruption. He said more than 11 agencies were tackling corruption issues, from taxation to governance.
He added that it was not the president’s job to arrest people, because it was not democratic, but it was the role of the strong establishments to take on those problems.
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