ACROSS the spectrum of South African society many, including this writer, are troubled, nay outraged, at the wholesale theft, cronyism and blatant corruption of the public purse that goes unpunished.
Perhaps even worse than the outright theft and illegal monitory gain of these miscreants is the polarizing effect it is having on society.
This is manifest in a lack of trust between not only different racial groups, but in just about any sale or transaction where money changes hands or a service or product is provided for some sort of reward.
This destruction of trust is compounded some might say by current draconian regulations that interfere with one’s business or personal freedoms, resulting in a form of paranoia where one thinks that everyone is out there to do you down.
In extreme cases this can and has resulted in violent confrontations and for those that are able, quitting this beautiful country.
But the grass is seldom greener elsewhere and greed and avarice is unfortunately hard wired into the human condition.
Take the UK for example – often held up, particularly by ex-pats or those with hereditary roots, as being the bastion of clean government, justice and fair play!
Sorry to disappoint.
Investigative journalist George Monbiot a regular columnist for The Guardian newspaper (est. 1821, circulation 128 879) points out in his piece entitled Contract Killers – 19 July – that – ‘Something is rotten the state of Denmark’ (thankyou Shakespeare).
He writes:
Under cover of the pandemic, the government has awarded contracts worth billions of pounds for equipment on which our lives depend, without competition or transparency. It has trampled its own rules, operated secretly and made incomprehensible and – in some cases – highly suspicious decisions.
The first, he says:
…involves a contract to test the effectiveness of the government’s coronavirus messaging, worth £840 000. It was issued by the Cabinet Office, which is run by Michael Gove. There was no advertisement for the work, and no competition. No official notice of the award has yet been published.
But we do know who the contract went to. It’s a company called Public First, owned by a married couple, James Frayne and Rachel Wolf. Since 2000, James Frayne has worked on political campaigns with Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief adviser. When Michael Gove was education secretary, he brought both Cummings and Frayne into his department. Cummings was Gove’s chief political adviser, while Frayne was his director of communications. At roughly the same time, in 2010, Gove’s Department awarded Rachel Wolf a £500 000 contract to promote his “free schools” obsession. Guess what? That didn’t go to competitive tender, either. Rachel Wolf co-wrote the Conservative party’s election manifesto in 2019.
Sighting another ‘strange case’ Monbiot advances details that:
…involves a pest control company in Sussex called PestFix, which has listed net assets of only £18,000. On April 13, again without public advertisement or competition, the government awarded PestFix a £32 million contract to supply surgical gowns. PestFix is not a manufacturer, but an intermediary (its founder calls it a public health supply business): its role was to order the gowns from China. But, perhaps because of its lack of assets, the government gave it a deposit worth 75% of the value of the contract. The government’s own rules state that prepayments should be made only “in extremely limited and exceptional circumstances”, and even then must be “capped at 25% of the value of the contract”.
I have edited these excerpts but there is much more apparent sleaze in the article which readers can access from The Guardian website.
So its cold comfort then that this cronyism and corruption is universal. Seems like the Covid-19 pandemic is the opportunity made in heaven for an even higher level of looting, both here and abroad.
Eish.
