MOKONYANE NEEDS TO DO MORE TO ROOT OUT CORRUPTION

I welcome Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane's call in today's Sunday Times for an "exit strategy for business people who were now multimillionaires through government tenders" (see article).

But it's not just big businesses squeezing out small businesses, it's the tight knot of companies that get contracts because of their political connections.

For instance, there is Tau Pride Projects (Pty) Ltd that currently gets R1 billion a year for Gauteng roads and public works, and does much other provincial government work.

Mokonyane is big on talk, but where are the forensic investigations into all the mega-million fishy tenders?

These companies should not be allowed to get away with their loot. I suspect that if they get away with past misdeeds, they will open up front companies to continue to get new work.

Moving procurement away from the Gauteng Shared Services Centre, as proposed by Mokonyane, is a good idea as the GSSC is terminally incompetent and awash with corruption.

Hospitals will benefit from placing their own orders direct, instead of the GSSC's manifold mistakes and late payments that have led to many suppliers withdrawing their services.

The big step that Mokonyane has yet to take is to open up the entire tender process so that everything is seen to be entirely above board.

This is utterly necessary if we are to root out corruption completely.

Statement issued by Jack Bloom MPL, Democratic Alliance Gauteng corruption spokesperson, June 28 2009

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