The State Capture commission is pushing for the creation of an Anti-Corruption Agency whose sole purpose is to keep an eagle eye on the procurement system. The commission believes such an agency is the proper starting point to confront the inherent abuses in the present system.

It suggests the agency should be structured similar to the competition watchdog. It makes it clear that the Anti-Corruption Agency must be free of any political oversight warning that public trust will not otherwise be re-established in the system. It concludes that the agency must simply be governed by the Constitution and the law. The appointments of staff to this agency must be done through a transparent public process.

According to the State Capture Report the subverting of the procurement system has been going on long before state capture. But the commission points that the looting under the Zuma administration was the most concentrated and aggressive attack on the system yet.

Research dating back to the early 2000s had warned that the system was in crisis. Attempts to tighten legislation have done little to prevent the looting of the State’s coffers.