Pretoria - Fraud and mismanagement of public funds are among the 25 cases which are being investigated by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Finance.
Tabling the department's Budget Vote for 2010/11 on Tuesday, KZN MEC for Finance Ina Cronje said through the department's internal audit programme, cases involving over R768 million have been investigated in the 2009/10 financial year.
"All these cases relate to allegations of fraud, corruption, theft, mismanagement of public funds, maladministration, money laundering, graft and other irregularities," Cronje said.
In an attempt to deal with fraud and corruption, Cronje said that the department has joined forces with the SAPS and other organizations within the forensic fraternity to identify and investigate a variety of fraudulent and corrupt activities in provincial departments.
The investigation also includes corrupt activities in entities serving as agents of specific departments and municipalities.
The department has also focused on pro-active and preventative strategies to combat IT fraud and corruption.
This was done through an IT security assessment conducted at all provincial departments through Project Unembeza, which was launched in 2008 after a successful pilot in 2007.
Project Unembeza is a pro-active strategy aimed at identifying control weaknesses in the provincial IT systems and networks.
Unembeza was initiated when 19 fraudulent BAS transactions amounting to R179 million were reported between 2006 and 2008.
An investigation resulted in the laying of 19 criminal charges with the SAPS and the Hawks.
"Since the implementation of the programme, no new cases of external manipulation through our systems have been reported, however, we remain vigilant and follow up on any suspicious activity that is reported," Cronje said.
