In a bid to curb corruption, government has launched the first Procurement Payments Dashboard using data from its Basic Accounting System.
This was announced by finance minister Enoch Godongwana, presenting the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement in Cape Town, earlier today.
According to the minister, this dashboard, which is available on the National Treasury eTender website, shows the payments made to suppliers by most national and provincial government departments, as captured on Treasury's payments system.
“This represents a massive step forward in procurement transparency. The dashboard will help identify inefficiencies, anomalies and uncovering opportunities for consolidation,” said Godongwna.
“It also enables analysis of procurement expenditure and the suppliers that do business with the state; giving citizens, academics and civil society the ability to hold departments accountable, supporting efforts to fight corruption and fraud,” he added.
He noted that if the dashboard had been introduced earlier, it could have halted the R2 billion looting at Tembisa Hospital in Johannesburg.
The Tembisa Hospital looting scandal exposed one of South Africa’s most alarming cases of corruption within the public health sector.
Investigations by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) revealed that over R2 billion meant for patient care and hospital operations was siphoned off through organised syndicates, involving hospital officials and private contractors.
Fraudulent procurement practices — including splitting tenders to bypass oversight, fake quotations, and inflated invoices — enabled the large-scale theft.
Said the minister: “If we had this system during (the scandal at) Tembisa Hospital, if you read the SIU report, they would avoid the tendering system by splitting tenders that are below R500 000. At the national level, we would not be able track that conduct.
“This system is going to help us to check that conduct and be able to raise red flags at an appropriate time,” he said.
Godongwana added government is also waging war on ghost workers in the public service, noting that the government had heard calls from all political parties and civil society.
“National Treasury is working closely with the Department of Public Service and Administration and Home Affairs on a data-driven approach that integrates systems across government. We are beginning to see the results of this collaboration.
“We have already uncovered close to 9 000 high-risk cases that have been flagged for further verification.”
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