Johannesburg - The government will next month introduce a centralised system that will expedite disciplinary cases against public servants.
This is part of the clampdown on corruption in government, including the implementation of the Public Administration Management Act, which bans public servants from doing business with the state.
President Jacob Zuma signed the bill into law in December last year following concern about the escalation of corruption in the state.
Ministers in the governance and administration cluster told journalists at Parliament on Tuesday that the centralised system would also help the government to establish how much it was losing on suspended officials who are paid while sitting at home.
Public Service and Administration Minister Collins Chabane and his colleague from Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, said changes to the legislation would break the cycle of corruption.
While the new centralised system would help speed up officials’ disciplinary cases, it would help to identify the extent of the harm to the state coffers.
In a report released by the Public Service Commission (PSC) three years ago, it emerged that government corruption was close to R1 billion.
In another report tabled by the PSC in Parliament last year, it was found that there were more than 1 260 cases of conflicts of interest in national departments and provinces relating to public servants doing business with the state between 2008 and 2011.
Chabane said financial disclosures by senior officials were important. The government now wants to expedite disciplinary cases instead of having senior officials sitting at home for prolonged periods.
The centralised system would help to identify people involved in wrongdoing and get their cases out of the way speedily, Chabane explained.
Gigaba said this was the cabinet’s decision last year. “Cabinet approved the creation of a pool of labour relations specialists and legal experts to deal with the backlog,” he pointed out.
“Preliminary work has been undertaken to identify all departments that require urgent intervention and to appoint the pool of experts.”
The Star