CORRUPTION is flourishing thanks to “the tone at the top”, says a forensic lawyer who blew the whistle yesterday on South Africa‘s deteriorating public and corporate morality.“The tone at the top is my biggest concern,” Steven Powell told The Times. The worsening of corruption was particularly evident in:* The issuing of permits by the Department of Home Affairs;* The insertion by state departments of middle men, who did nothing other than take a slice of the money, as a condition of the awarding of government contracts; and* The prevalence of government officials demanding a bribe simply to do their job.“Corruption is becoming more [common] and our clients are experiencing more bribery requests,” said Powell, director of forensic investigations at law firm ENSafrica.For the third year Powell‘s team has published an anti-corruption and bribery survey. It names South Africa as one of eight African corruption hot spots. The others are Mozambique, Kenya, Namibia, Ghana, Tanzania, the ...
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