The ANC NEC wants its deployees in the government to urgently establish a multidisciplinary agency to deal with white-collar crime and corruption.

This is one of the resolutions of this past weekend’s three-day sitting of the national executive committee (NEC).

“The NEC declared its full support for the decision, announced by President [Cyril] Ramaphosa, to refer all allegations of corruption in the procurement for Covid-19 goods and services to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and for the establishment of a multidisciplinary law enforcement team to investigate Covid-19 corruption. It urges this team to move with speed to bring those responsible to book,” the party said in a statement.

“The NEC called upon the ANC-led government to urgently establish a permanent multidisciplinary agency to deal with all cases of white-collar crime, organised crime and corruption.

“Furthermore, the NEC called upon all law enforcement agencies to carry out their duties without fear, favour or prejudice.”

This comes amid growing report of the misuse of procurement processes and funds set aside to address the coronavirus pandemic.

A number of ANC heavyweights from across all levels of government have been implicated in wrongdoing and at least three have had to step aside from their responsibilities in government pending the outcomes of investigations by law enforcement and now the party itself.

“The NEC called upon ANC structures and government at national, provincial and local levels to address the root causes of problems in local government identified by the auditor-general, namely: disregard for controls; non-compliance with legislation and assurance providers; inadequate monitoring of internal controls; vacancies in critical positions; continued capacity gap in administration; leadership instability at administration and political level; ineffective governance structures; leadership’s inaction and/or inconsistent action to address persistent transgression that creates a culture of non-compliance,” said the party.

“These administrative and governance lapses make for very weak accountability and the consequent exposure to abuse of the public purse.

“Furthermore, the NEC emphasised the importance of respecting the political-administrative interface and allowing senior leaders in the administration the space to play their statutory role without interference, including the filling of critical vacancies.”

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