Scopa hears state agencies lack integrity, still captured
A top-ranking retired police officer Jap Burger told Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts that the integrity of government organs has not been restored, despite the recommendations by the State Capture Commission.
Burger briefed the committee on Wednesday on the allegations of corruption and fraud at Eskom.
The committee made the decision to call Burger to appear before it after his name was mentioned during deliberations on the allegations made by former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter.
The committee is still probing the allegations and aiming to finalise its investigation by the end of the year.
Burger, who has been a police officer for over 40 years, has been described as the central figure in the investigation.
He told the committee that he was co-opted to work on Eskom corruption investigations by the former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head, Johan Booysen.
Burger told MPs a lot still needs to be done to ensure that government entities appoint people of integrity.
"Many of the state organs have not yet been uncaptured, the integrity has not been restored. The security clearance and vetting processes are one of the many instruments to start cleaning out and ensuring that we have people and institutions of integrity.
“We don't have institutions of integrity. We have not cleaned out. Just look at the National Prosecuting Authority. We have some prosecutors who are involved in criminality. They are not cleaned out.
“In 2018, I worked on a process that we call the integrity support process, which uses data to fast-track the integrity testing of an individual that was presented, and guess what happened then? It was killed off.
“No further resources to develop it, and there was never further development - so was that a deliberate attempt or just a failure in the system that the initiative was not taken forward?
“We are working against resistance,” said Burger.
