Durban - GOVERNMENT officials implicated in acts of corruption should expect to pay for their sins following the formation of a new committee that aims to punish errant officials.
The Ad Hoc Committee of Oversight of Investigation was formed by the provincial legislature, to keep track of all forensic investigations conducted in government departments and to ensure that those implicated are held accountable.
The chairperson of the committee, Maggie Govender, said the legislature was growing increasingly frustrated by the failure of government departments to implement directives from forensic reports and had decided to force their hand.
She said they were going to be looking at the investigations in all departments and their entities. The oversight would cover the investigations during the term of the committee and those completed after its existence.
Govender said the legislature felt it needed to act as the government was losing millions due to corruption, and the matter was compounded by investigations that were not acted upon.
“In some cases, these investigations are delayed while those that have been implicated remain at work. We are going to be pressing these departments through their political heads, the MEC and the head of department to find out what they have done,” she said.
The committee, said Govender, would demand accountability of investigations conducted at municipal level through the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, because the legislature does not have direct oversight over municipalities.
She said the committee would work with other state organs, including the Special Investigating Unit, the Hawks and the auditor-general to ensure those implicated were held accountable.
“Our work will be public and our documents will be public. We call on those in the public that are aware of wrongdoing to come forward and informs us. If they know of officials who resigned under a cloud from one department and have emerged in another department, they need to alert us,” she said.
Govender said the legislature had done a lot over the past few years to limit the spread of corruption in the provincial government.
She said this included flagging officials who resigned from departments to avoid criminal charges and officials who resigned from one department to join another.
“If an official was being disciplined in one department but resigns and joins another department, the new department has an obligation to continue with the disciplinary process that the official had fled from,” said Govender.
DA member of the committee, Francois Rodgers, said people would now be held accountable and face consequences.
The Mercury