THE national head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), Lieutenant-General Advocate Godfrey Lebeya has urged all citizens to be anti-corruption champions.
He also called for the support of the work done by the DPCI Fusion Centre unit by reporting all forms of fraud and corruption, without fear or favour.
He said this during a media briefing in Tshwane on Wednesday, 6 December.
Lebeya was giving an update on the success and achievements of the Fusion Centre, which was established in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown to address priority financial crimes, including corruption.
He said since May 2020 to date, the Fusion Centre has achieved a significant number of successes in arrests, prosecution, freezing orders and recoveries.
He said these significant achievements show the government’s sharp focus on capacitating the agencies focused on fighting crime and corruption is yielding results.
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During the Covid-19 pandemic period, there were a number of corruption incidents related to the procurement of personal protection equipment (PPEs) and the allocation of the relief funds for those negatively affected by the pandemic.
Lebeya said the Fusion Centre was seized with co-ordination of investigations of cases involving corruption related to unauthorised procurement and misappropriation of funds by state institutions related to PPE procurement and other Covid-19-related matters.
“These include claims of relief funds from the Temporary Employer or Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) and the provision of food parcels to the needy and other social and economic relief measures.
“We investigated 556 cases and incidents of fraud, maladministration, tax evasion and corruption involving 168 accused persons,” said Lebeya.
He said 51 people and 43 entities were convicted for various crimes including corruption, fraud, tax evasion, money laundering and others, and 48 cases are still in court.
He said in terms of the freezing orders and recoveries, the Financial Intelligence Centre obtained 25 orders worth R274 million while the assets forfeiture unit obtained 42 orders worth more than R331 million, special investigating unit obtained 29 orders amounting to R465 million and Sars obtained 22 freezing orders worth over R740 million.
“Public officials were involved in some of the cases of maladministration or did not follow the legislative frameworks in the appointment of service providers, and payments made to service providers and third parties.
“There were 97 referrals for disciplinary and executive actions against officials in government departments and state-owned entities. So far, 11 public officials have been dismissed for various cases of maladministration, fraud and corruption,” he said.
