Call for lifestyle audits across all government departments

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is calling for lifestyle audits to be implemented across all high-risk government departments.

SIU acting head, Leonard Lekgetho said that these audits are essential for preventing corruption.

"We have developed a national anti-corruption strategy framework... aimed at introducing the 'prevention' part – because as you know, there's the Hawks, there's SIU, there's the police... there's a lot of investigative bodies, but when you look at the preventative bodies, there isn't much.

"If you prevent, it's better than when you investigate because the cost of prevention is much lower."

Lekgetho explains that other parts of the preventative framework include integrity checks, vetting processes and data analytics.

"We are able to use that in order to identify the corruption risk exposure of government.

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Lifestyle audits are also used in the course of investigations.

On the question of whether there is political will to cooperate with this process, Lekgetho is positive.

"We're quite happy with the support that we're getting from government, from both the President and from the minister."

To listen to Leonard Lekgetho in conversation with CapeTalk and 702’s Mandy Wiener, use the audio player below: