THE Limpopo legislature has welcomed and approved recommendations by the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) to blacklist civil servants' companies that are doing business with their employer illegally.

The move will put the brakes on the escalating corruption by government officials who are manipulating the government to spend millions of rands on projects that are not intended for service delivery.

Scopa chairperson Derrick Ngobeni said the committee was interested in fighting corruption that was becoming a culture, with officials also abusing state resources indoing running their businesses.

Investigations by the auditor-general's office found that 920 government officials had engaged in business practices without permission from their employer, and in the process cashed in R250 million.

Ngobeni told the legislature that the committee was convinced government officials were abusing the government tendering system and colluding with tender committees to get state contracts.

Now the committee has told the legislature that as a result of negligence by heads of departments it wanted them to be charged.

The legislature has also approved that all companies that misrepresented information and obtained contracts fraudulently must be blacklisted and value added tax (VAT) recovered and reported to the SA Revenue Service.