Arms deal report fails to settle matter of corruption in arms procurement
22 April 2016
In response to President Zuma’s release yesterday of the Seriti Commission’s report, Corruption Watch notes that, given the thoroughly flawed and irregular proceedings of the commission over the last four years, this outcome is hardly surprising. The report’s eventual failure to address long-standing allegations of corruption in the arms deal prevents closure of this sordid chapter in the governance of large scale public procurement.
Set up to investigate the allegations of wrongdoing in the Strategic Defence Procurement Packages, the commission under the stewardship of Supreme Court Judge Willie Seriti, was perceived to lack credibility and its processes compromised.
There are three key factors that cloud the findings of the report:
- There has hardly ever been an arms deal of this scale that is free of corruption - to have found no evidence of corruption in this instance is therefore highly unlikely.