05 Jun 2014

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has been commended for devising strategies to fight corruption.

Speaking during the official launch of the Ministerial Anti-Corruption Policy in Mahalapye, the senior assistant director in the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), Ms Erica Ndlovu, hailed the ministry for its preventative interventions of hostility towards corruption.

Ms Ndlovu said for the ministry to have strategies that included staff awareness, conduct of corruption risk assessments and implementation of corruption audit recommendations with a view to address the negative outlook of corruption is a step forward.

She said the efforts bore fruit as the allegations of corruption and related incidence in the ministry declined from 18 per cent in 2012 to 14 per cent in 2013.

She commended the ministry’s leaders and staff for their dedication to the fight corruption and encouraged them to continue to put pressure on corrupt elements.

Ms Ndlovu called for a relentless fight against corruption because it was a national problem that could have corrosive effects on the economy, politics and the society at large. Corruption has been growing in complexity to include insider trading, cyber-crime and money laundering The government responded to the challenges through DCEC initiatives.

She said the ministry’s anti-corruption policy provided guideline with regard to anti-corruption interventions in the ministry.  In the past, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development accounted for the highest percentage of corruption reports but subsequent intervention have been successful.

She requested the leadership of the ministry to continue to drive and lead the fight against corruption because the vice hindered and efficient and effective service delivery and tarnished the reputation of national institutions.

She said corruption tendencies were predominantly present in areas of human resources, procurement, contract management, finance and licensing.

She hailed the ministry for launching the Anti- Corruption Policy and urged that good governance principles in serving the public be put in place. She encouraged the entire public sector to enhance transparency, improve accountability and the use of public resources on development and delivery of services and attainment of the overall vision of a corruption-free society. Ends