Against the backdrop of Corruption Watch's last April-released damning report on corruption and bribery, the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) has acknowledged that corruption is quite widespread among its ranks, and has also vowed to take appropriate action.

The scale of corruption in the JMPD ranks is apparent from the fact that, even though 28 cases have been lodged with the JMPD internal affairs section between June 2012 and February 2013, not even one officer of the department has been found guilty of corruption.

It has been found that while one officer was found not guilty, one officer had resigned; nine of the cases lodged were unsubstantiated; 11 cases were still under investigation; and six hearings were pending.

The disquieting situation comes despite the fact that, over six months back, the metro police management and the City of Johannesburg had - in an undertaking - decided to strengthen the reporting of corruption as well as field integrity testing.

In response to the complaints about the scale of corruption in the JMPD ranks, JMPD spokesman Wayne Minnaar said that the leadership of the department took full responsibility for discipline within the organisation.

Noting that "the council has recently approved the formation of the external oversight committee to monitor all JMPD activities," Minnaar said: "Integrity field testing is conducted on a daily basis by. internal affairs and the results indicates a decline in the number of corruption cases reported."