There is a rising number of ‘bogus’ travel expense claims in SA
A new survey finds there has been a big jump in the number of bribery and corruption cases in South Africa over the past 24 months.
Notably, the ENSafrica’s 2016 survey highlighted a big rise in incidents of bribery and corruption in the country‚ with 79% of incidents reported locally.
“The survey results show that 39% of respondents experienced incidents of bribery or corruption in the last 24 months‚ and highlight a marked increase in bribery and corruption in South Africa in particular‚” ENSafrica said.
The survey pointed to a big jump in the number of respondents who said their business was exposed to corruption and bribery relating t0 expenses for travel and lodging of foreign government officials (e.g per diem payments).
Per diem payments’ generally refers to a specified amount that employers will pay to employees as reimbursement for various expenses.
The survey’s key findings relating to perceived bribery and corruption risks included the following
- 27% of respondents said they were highly exposed to bribery in Africa — up from 17% in 2015 — while 57% said they were moderately exposed;
- 76% said that “the use of third parties” posed a significant risk to their company — up from 68% in 2015 and 65% in 2014;
- 52% said they were exposed to the risk of bribes and 48% to the facilitation of payments. The exposure of employing government officials or their relatives jumped from 8% in 2015 to 21% in 2016;
- 92% of respondents indicated bribery or corruption would most affect their “corporate reputation”‚ followed by financial loss‚ possible debarment from government contracts or trading and a negative effect on share price; and
- 53% of respondents believed they were “somewhat prepared” to respond to an anti-bribery and corruption compliance investigation by a regulator‚ while 10% believed they were “not well-prepared”.
The most frequent means for reporting incidents appears to have been verbal reports to management (67%), followed by whistle-blower hotlines (61%). A significant number of incidents appear to have been reported by email (23%), the report said.
More on bribery in SA
South Africa a “bribery hot spot” in Africa
296 municipal officials fired for fraud and corruption over the past year
Loading ...