Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa November 2014 | Page 10

upfront

PROPERTY ALERTS

The
Good

Probe into
DPW irregular
expenditure

S

APOA has welcomed the
announcement
by
Public
Works
Minister,
Thulas
Nxesi, that there will be a thorough
investigation
into
irregularexpenditure by the Department of
Public Works (DPW ), which had
uncovered R34.9 billion of irregularexpenditure going back to 2001.
Some R1.1 billion of this is being
investigated for fraud and corruption.
Neil Gopal, CEO of SAPOA,
comments:
“The
commercial
property sector welcomes Minister
Nxesi’s promise that every instance
of irregular expenditure will be
fully investigated. We will assist
these investigations in any way we
can, and stand ready to support the
department to meet their goal of
wrapping up these investigations
during its current financial year.”
Many commercial property
owners have leases with government
departments through the DPW, and
are affected by the department’s level
of effective functioning and ethical
conduct. “The commercial propertysector will continue to put its weight
behind reporting and weeding out
unlawful activity identified in our
dealings wi H