CORRUPT OFFICIALS BEWARE THE SPECIAL INVESTIGATING UNIT (SIU) IS GROWING AND FAST !

The SIU has grown from 67 staff members to over 200in the past 3 years. This figure is expected to grow to over 500 members in the next year. These figures were released by the Head of the SIU, Willie Hofmeyr, during a Parliamentary briefing session today and signal another stride in government’s anti-corruption efforts.

President Mbeki appointed Willie Hofmeyr to replace former judge Willem Heath to lead the new SIU which was established in August 2001 after the Constitutional Court ruled that a judge cannot head the SIU.

SIU achievements in 2004/05

Sporting the new SIU logo, a cobra, Hofmeyr said that the highlights of a very successful year were:

These funds will be available in future for service delivery initiatives by affected departments.

The other major achievements of the SIU are:

These announcements come hot on the heels of the recent National Anti-Corruption Summit in which President Mbeki outlined the importance of fighting corruption as part of the effort to accelerate and improve service delivery. He praised the work being done by law enforcement agencies, including the SIU, in combating corruption.

SIU benefits from working with Departments

Hofmeyr said that the SIU has built its anti- corruption capacity rapidly over the past few years, growing from 67 to over 200 members.

Hofmeyr praised the initiatives of a number of government departments who have been willing to bear the cost of the SIU’s investigations into their departments.

In 2005/06, the SIU will receive nearly R60 million from such cooperation, doubling its total budget from R53 million to R110 million over the next year. The major initiatives are summarised below:

Department

Annual contribution to cost of investigation

No of staff dedicated to investigation

Correctional Services

R6m

40

Eastern Cape Department of Local Government

R6m

17

Transport

R16.8m

75

Social Development

R22m

(growing to R50m)

80

(to grow to 210

over 18 months)

 

Department of Correctional Services (DCS)

An example of the benefits of such cooperation is the remarkable achievements in the DCS investigation.

Over the past 3 years, over R1 billion has been saved or recovered, mainly from fraud on the medical aid fund by medical practitioners and pharmacists in collusion with DCS officials.

The investigation has been conducted in close cooperation with DCS, the medical aid fund, SAPS and the Scorpions. Thus far:

In addition,

An indication of the scale of the investigation is that the SIU has interviewed 103 496 prisoners and 16 927 correctional officials and attended to 8091 complaints.

National presence

The SIU has moved rapidly to establish a more effective national presence.

Its Head Office recently moved from East London to Pretoria, and it also has offices in Cape Town, Durban, Nelspruit and Mthatha. A Bloemfontein office will be opened shortly.

 

For further information, contact:

Head: Willie Hofmeyr

Deputy Head: Faiek Davids

Head of Operations: Gerhard Visagie

Spokesperson: Simon Meyer