Lifestyle audits to lift lid on state looting

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has said a decade of conduct was coming under the microscope in lifestyle audits probing government and state-owned enterprise heavyweights active from 2009 to 2019. According to a Fin24 report, he said the audits were planned for completion by March 2019, and were currently in phase two. Earlier he had said the first phase of the audits would cover board members, executives in SOCs (state-owned companies), company secretaries and prescribed officers who had served in the SOCs since 2009. Gordhan said the second phase of the lifestyle audits – now under way – would focus on officials in supply chain management, auditors as well as past and present officials in the Department of Public Enterprises. ‘Among others, the work would reflect how Senior Management Service members within the department and SOC officials may have abused their positions of authority to unduly benefit themselves and their family members through state procurement opportunities,’ he explained. He said the audits would be used to hold those who have unduly benefited from state resources and procurement accountable. They would also enhance procurement governance practices within the department, as well as help to recover monies the state lost as a result of abuse, he added.

Eskom has already started the process of conducting lifestyle audits on its top brass, according to Gordhan. In response to a parliamentary question, notes Eyewitness News, Gordhan said the audits will date back to April 2009, starting with board members. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) was instructed in April to conduct lifestyle audits on those implicated in corruption at Eskom and Transnet. Gordhan said their mandate will be expanded to include all six state-owned companies within his Ministry. The SIU is currently probing allegations of malfeasance, fraud and corruption at Eskom and Transnet, the report states.