R62m on suspended employees a ‘mockery’

Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters. File picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters. File picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Published Apr 29, 2016

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Durban - The national Transport Department spent more than R62 million over the past three years on the salaries of employees suspended on full pay while disciplinary action was taken against them.

This is according to a parliamentary reply by Transport Minister, Dipuo Peters, to questions from DA Transport spokesperson, Manny de Freitas.

The parliamentary reply revealed that excluding the Passenger Rail Agency of SA, a total of 116 people were suspended with full pay in her department or entities under it between 2012 and 2015.

A deputy director-general who had been suspended for 10 months while a disciplinary process was under way was paid R983 851 in the 2013/14 financial year while five other employees were paid a combined R1.015 million during the 2014/15 while on suspension.

According to the department, all the officials were alleged to have committed serious misconduct that warranted precautionary suspension, but all the matters had since been resolved.

Most of the people suspended on full pay were from the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa), where 62 employees were paid almost R3m in three years.

The Acsa staff were suspended on allegations that ranged from concealment of information, desertion of post, dishonesty, forging sick notes, fraud, micro-lending and using foul and insulting language.

The department said all the cases had been finalised and employees were either dismissed, acquitted or given final written warnings.

The department said a benchmark had been set at Acsa for resolution of suspensions with full pay within a period of three months.

“Suspension of employees with full pay will be used as an action of last resort in deserving cases of serious financial and criminal misconduct. While some suspensions with full pay may be longer than others, the average period of three months will be the guiding principle,” said the department.

The parliamentary reply revealed that during the last three financial years SA Civil Aviation Authority suspended six people on full pay pending disciplinary hearings, Air Traffic and Navigation Services eight, SA Marine Safety Authority four, Railway Safety Regulator two, Cross-Border Transport Agency, eight, Road Accident Fund 10, Road Traffic Management Corporation 11 and the Road Traffic Infringement Agency one person.

Those who were suspended faced charges from fraud and misconduct to misrepresentation of qualifications. The Ports Regulator of South Africa had not suspended anyone since 2007.

De Freitas said the Transport Department, by paying officials their full salaries while suspended, was forking out millions to ensure corrupt and ineffective officials kept their jobs while millions of South Africans were unemployed.

“This makes a mockery of the suffering of the poor and unemployed, who cannot find work,” he said. “The Department of Transport (DoT) is acting recklessly by spending millions on suspended employees while it is a clear fact that countless South Africans do not have jobs because government claims it cannot afford to pay any more staff.

“Even worse, is that this figure is potentially understated as the response from the Road Traffic Management Corporation merely provided monthly salaries without indicating the employees’ length of suspension...

“I will ask the minister to institute an investigation into this ongoing, and growing, phenomenon within the Department of Transport and the public service in general,” De Freitas said.

He said while employees had a right to be suspended on full pay, the problem was the length of time it took for the disciplinary process to be completed.

Addressing a senior management conference for public servants in Gauteng two years ago, then minister for public service and administration, Collins Chabane, said the number of government employees on suspension with full pay was “highly unacceptable”.

He urged government departments to speed up disciplinary processes within set time frames .

“I am of the view the proper legislative and regulatory frameworks exist for you to deal speedily with disciplinary processes within the public service. For example, if someone is suspended with full pay the suspension must be reviewed within 30 days as outlined in the Public Service Commission’s guidelines on the management of suspensions within the public service. If the process is not completed then the relevant human resources unit must review the suspension weekly! Despite these guidelines we still witness people on suspension for more than 12 months in this province,” he said.

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