Print article   email story

GOVERNMENT is free to keep and use the national anti-corruption hotline (NACH) which is used to report acts of corruption in the public service.

This was the ruling of Pretoria High Court Judge Ben du Plessis today in a row over the ownership of the toll-free line.

Government, through the Public Service Commission (PSC), sought the court's intervention in January after the auditing firm Gobodo Forensic and Investigative Auditing re-routed the line to its numbers.

This had come after the contract between government and Gobodo had come to an end in August last year and a new contract - including the use of the line - given to another company.

Judge du Plessis found that the contract between PSC and Gobodo was silent as to "what is to happen to the number when the contract is terminated".

"There is in my view no doubt that the parties' unexpressed intention was that the number should after termination of the contract still be available for the applicant to use it as the National Anti-Corruption Hotline," he said.

"Any other interpretation will lead to the absurd result that members of the public calling the NACH, will reach not the NACH but the first respondent (Gobodo)."

During the court hearing, Gobodo's chief executive officer George Papadakis argued that "the toll-free may be important to PSC, but that does not mean it is entitled to take it over and utilise it".

"That line belongs to Gobodo. Upon termination or cessation of the contract, there was nothing to oblige or cause Gobodo to hand over or transfer such a line to the PSC," Papadakis said.

However, PSC's director for professional ethics, research and promotion Roderick Davids argued in papers that it would be unsafe for ordinary people to use the hotline if it was in control of Gobodo.

"The integrity of the persons phoning and that of the information dispatched is compromised in that the identity of such callers becomes public knowledge and their safety is at risk since PSC cannot guarantee confidentiality," he explained.

Davids said the re-routing of the number in January meant that Gobodo was "effectively monitoring, managing and collecting data" from callers on the hotline without an agreement to do so.

In terms of the previous contract with government, Gobodo received all calls and then passed the information to the relevant departments for further investigation.

Telkom, which was listed as a second responded, supported PSC and said that government had instructed it to "change the billing address in respect of the accounts rendered to PSC".

The fixed-line operator said Gobodo's details were updated onto the Telkom customer management systems in the space ordinarily used to indicate the account holder.

Subscribe to the print edition of City Press