By Genevieve Quintal, News24
Johannesburg – Corruption Watch conducted 10 investigations into allegations of corruption in schools during the past year, making it one of its corruption hotspots for 2015, according to its annual report released on Wednesday.
“In all 10 cases the school principal was found to be the main culprit involved in the corrupt activities,” Corruption Watch said.
“Nine out of the 10 cases dealt with principals abusing school funds for their own personal gain.”
Of the 10 investigations, seven were conducted in Gauteng and three in KwaZulu-Natal.
Reports on corruption in schools made up 16% of the total complaints lodged with Corruption Watch, according to the report.
The corruption in schools was brought to light in Corruption Watch’s ‘Loss of Principle’ report, it said.
Since it started in 2012, Corruption Watch said it had received a large number of reports alleging corruption in the management of school resources.
According to the ‘Loss of Principle’ report since 2012 Corruption Watch had received 1 128 reports of school corruption from the public.
A total of 37% had to do with financial mismanagement, 20% theft of funds, 13% tender corruption, 9% employment corruption, 3% theft of goods, which included food related to school feeding schemes, and 18% on other.
The three most cited types of corruption across all provinces were financial mismanagement, theft of goods or funds, and corruption related to tenders. –Â News24
Source:Â http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/schools-are-corruption-hotspots-corruption-watch-20160309
