The South Africa President, Jacob Zuma has ordered a probe into the activities of several government departments in a move to combat corruption, mismanagement and maladministration, the Presidency said in a statement on Thursday. The statement revealed that Mr Zuma had directed a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate supply-chain related concerns in the departments, treating them as high priority. The departments affected are the Department of Health in the Gauteng Province, Human Settlements, Department of Arts and Culture and Department of Education in the Eastern Cape Province. Others are National Department of Public Works, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and the South African Police Service. In the Department of Arts and Culture, Mr Zuma mandated the SIU to look at “under-spending or misspending of the Department’s budget in respect of the amounts voted for purpose of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Projects for 2007, 2008 and 2009 financial years.” The investigations will also cover the failure by officials of the Department to ensure that transfers and subsidies to beneficiaries in several projects, including the World Cup, were applied for their intended purposes or whether there were irregular or wasteful expenditure. The Presidency also mandated the SIU to look into irregularities in various aspects of the other six departments, noting that while not pre-judging them, the action was to combat corruption. It said each investigation would be staffed by a substantial team of forensic investigators, lawyers, accountants and analysts. Source: 234next.com