Johannesburg - The days of suspended government officials sitting at home and drawing salaries could soon be over. That is if what the Public Service and Administration Department says is anything to go by.
It said that, from this week, it would begin deploying labour relations experts to departments to deal with misconduct cases that had not been finalised.
Director-general Mashwale Diphosa said the government was targeting suspensions that cost the state too much.
The deployment was one element of a centralised system – approved by the cabinet earlier this year – to manage and fast-track the cases of those on suspension.
“We are very concerned about the number of suspensions, and that’s why we had to intervene,” Mashwale said, speaking on the sidelines of the Gauteng anti-corruption summit in Midrand.
Public Service and Administration Minister Collins Chabane said in July that about R50m a year was spent keeping about 400 suspended civil servants at home because of delays in finalising their cases.
In September, he said there were up to 500 outstanding cases on the centralised database. Speakers at the summit expressed grave concern about rampant corruption across departments and parastatals and the effects on service delivery.
The anger seemed more directed at the public officials doing business with the government through the porous procurement system.
The failure to disclose assets and conflicts of interest was identified as one of the common transgressions among public officials.
“It’s a disgrace that we have public service officials who do business with the government,” Mashwale said. “Policies on their own will not help in bringing about ethical conduct. We need to… ensure there are fitting sanctions.”
Gauteng Premier David Makhura reiterated that his administration would not tolerate corruption by public officials and business people. “Corruption is a crime against the poor and it has to be fought with all the weapons at our disposal,” he said.
“Public servants who don’t want to declare their interests or who want to be business people should get out of the public service.”
A Public Service Commission report released last month said the Gauteng government had lost R4.3m through the suspension of senior officials in 2013/14 alone.
It said only half of the province’s 14 departments had submitted all financial disclosure forms required from senior management service members.
The commission identified a possible conflict of interest in 209 of the 683 financial disclosure forms that were scrutinised in the year under review.
It found nearly 600 cases of financial misconduct had been reported in Gauteng alone in 2013/14, 93 of them involving a combined R8.8m.
The commission’s report for 2012/13 recorded the highest loss, R25m, in Gauteng in five years. Gauteng had lost R71m over the five years to the end of 2012/13.
In a tough speech against corruption, Makhura said on Friday that his administration had noted three common concerns in the reports by the Public Service Commission, the auditor-general, the public protector and others.
All, he said, had painted a gloomy picture of corruption, failure by senior managers to declare their interests, and a high number of public servants doing business with the government.
Makhura announced a range of measures to crack down on errant officials and business people.
These include:
* Strengthening anti-corruption units and setting up integrity management offices across government departments to enforce declarations of interests.
* Introducing regulations and measures to prevent public servants and officials from doing business with the government.
* Introducing greater transparency and public scrutiny and accountability into the tender process.
* Putting in place greater capacity to monitor the pricing of materials, goods and other items and services procured by the government, to expose collusion and price-fixing among companies, especially in the construction and food industries.
* Blacklisting, publicly exposing and prosecuting all businesses involved in bribery and corruption.
* Strengthening civilian oversight over law enforcement agencies with a specific focus on rooting out corruption and removing corrupt officers.
Makhura also reminded the audience about other strategies to fight corruption, including the establishment of an integrity management office in government departments and the premier’s office.
“Ethical conduct in the public service is a constitutional requirement, a cornerstone of sound governance and a core responsibility of those who hold office and serve our people.
“We are required (by law) to appoint an ethics champion and integrity champions whose responsibilities are to drive ethics and anti-corruption initiatives.”
Makhura said his government had resolved 58 percent of the cases reported through the anti-corruption hotline. “Our immediate task is to increase this figure significantly.”
His administration would work with the Public Service and Administration Department to consider the inclusion of anti-corruption indicators in the performance contracts of all provincial departments, particularly for heads of department and other senior officials, Makhura said.
One of the highlights of the summit was a speech by the chairman of Kenya’s Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, Mumo Matemu, about how his country had developed a comprehensive plan of action, including promulgating laws and regulations, to clamp down on “the spectacle of corruption”.
Sunday Independent