Background checks are worth their weight in gold in the mining sector
South Africa possesses ore reserves amounting to a value of more than US$2.5 trillion, with 16 commodities ranked in the top ten internationally. In such an important and high-value sector of the economy, it’s easy to see why the mining industry is a frequent target for malfeasance of all kinds – from deceptive suppliers to tender fraud.
And in such a heavily regulated industry, onboarding fraudulent suppliers or tender applicants can mean the end of a company. “Vetting all suppliers and third parties is crucial. This includes the obvious checks such as BEE status and account verification, but also harder-to-come-by information such as checking whether there are any sanctions against a company,” says Sameer Kumandan, Managing Director of SearchWorks, an innovative data aggregation platfor...