Durban -THE Public Service Commission (PSC) has asked President Cyril Ramaphosa and premiers to act against senior public servants who failed to disclose their business interests to the government.
The PSC made the call after more than 700 senior government managers were singled out as having failed to disclose their business interests and directorships in various private and public companies.
The commission revealed that their investigation found that 721 public servants had failed to disclose that they were directors at companies that were possibly doing business with the state.
PSC commissioner Mike Seloane said their findings covered the period between January and March this year.
He said the PSC had scrutinised all the received financial disclosure forms of senior managers, and they had conducted investigations to determine if the disclosures were truthful.
“The scrutiny of the financial disclosure forms revealed that a total of 721 members in both national and provincial departments did not disclose their directorships in private and public companies. This is in contravention of regulation 19 of the Public Service Regulation, 2016,” Seloane said.
“The PSC has advised the executive authority (Ramaphosa) to consult with these senior members to determine reasons for not fully disclosing their directorships. After such consultation, the (executive authority) must consider disciplinary actions against these senior managers.”
He said the PSC also found that 356 senior managers were doing other remunerative work, some without the necessary written approval of the relevant authority.
Senior managers from national departments doing remunerative work included directors-general (DGs), deputy directors-general (DDGs), chief directors and directors.
The total number of senior managers in national departments doing remunerative work was 183, and only 72 had written approval. Of those, 19 were DDGs, two DGs, 38 chief directors and 124 directors. All of them, including those with written approvals, had cumulatively earned more than R16 million.
Of all nine provinces, the Western Cape had the highest number of DGs doing remunerative work. According to the PSC, of the 49 officials found to be doing remunerative work, 24 were DGs, three were DDGs, five chief directors and 17 directors. Written approvals were given to only 22 officials. They earned more than R1.7m.