Cesa moves on first graft case as it sharpens corruption-busting tools

30th July 2013

By: Terence Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

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Consulting Engineers South Africa (Cesa), which represents more than 450 member firms, is moving ahead with its first anticorruption case, having established a so-called ‘war chest’ in 2012 to enable it to take legal action in instances where corruption is suspected.

The organisation is not yet disclosing details, but it is understood that a case, brought to light by one of its members, has been lodged with a regional office of the Public Protector and involves a district council.

In parallel, Cesa is continuing to formalise its corruption-busting mechanisms, which includes a hotline and the legal fund. It has also engaged the services of financial and business solutions firm Moore Stephens, which will provide forensic services to the organisation.

It admits that it is still feeling its way, but is hoping to improve its systems through the experience gained from the first matter so that future actions can be progressed more expeditiously.

Newly appointed CEO Lefadi Makibinyane, who took over from Graham Pirie at the beginning of July, says Cesa aims to take a leadership role in fighting corruption in the infrastructure milieu, including corruption in the form of contractor collusion. Fifteen South African construction companies were recently collectively fined R1.46-billion by the competition authorities after a probe found instances of bid-rigging and collusion across 140 projects.

Besides pursuing legal prosecutions and other enforcement actions, Cesa is engaging with the National Treasury with the aim of convincing it to weave the concept of an integrity pact into the Public Finance Management Act and the Municipal Finance Management Act. Cesa believes such pacts should be part of all infrastructure programmes and entered into by clients, professional service providers and contractors ahead of any development.

It is also demanding that its own members, which collectively employ about 18 000 people and report yearly fee income of around R15-billion, sign a business integrity pact. It has indicated that it will take action against, even expel, member firms found to be in breach of the pact.

Corruption, Makibinyane stresses, destroys value, distorts markets and frustrates individuals who wish to conduct business in an ethical way.

However, he is also convinced that public sector could materially reduce instances of corruption by “returning to basics” in the way in which the services of consulting engineers are deployed.

Ideally, consulting engineers should not only be involved in the upfront design of projects, but also in providing independent advice to tender adjudication bodies, as well as in supervising delivery.

In fact, Makibinyane believes that Cesa’s member firms could emerge as effective “watch dogs” for public sector clients, thereby ensuring greater value for money and even providing something of a safeguard against contractor collusion.

He, therefore, sees his key mission as being that of educating clients on the virtues of employing consulting engineers throughout the infrastructure delivery process and not merely during the design phase.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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