Johannesburg - A Gauteng government official is to face the music for allegedly failing to disclose that he earned more than R50 000 in his private dealings with the government four years ago.
MEC for Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation in Gauteng, Mbali Hlophe made these revelations in a written reply to questions by the DA’s spokesperson on sports, arts and culture, Lebogang More.
However, the official is likely to be the only person to face the music as Hlophe admitted that her department does not have the tools to prevent its officials from doing business with the provincial government or any other entity under it. She made the admission when More asked her whether they were any officials who had done business with the department or the Gauteng Film Commission in the past five financial years including in 2019.
In her reply, Hlophe said: “The Gauteng Film Commission has no known knowledge of officials who have done business with the commission. “There is no system to track whether officials have done business with the department in the past five years.”
Hlophe, however, said that they had officials who were doing business with her department. She singled out a contract worker who apparently earns a stipend of R4000. The contract worker, who has an employee number, was one of the two people singled out by the Auditor-General for doing business with the government.
According to the Auditor-General, the contract worker was paid an amount of R116 000 for providing training and consultancy work to the same department during the 2018/2019 financial year.
Hlophe admitted that the second person (whose name is withheld) was a permanent employee of the department. He did business with the same department in 2017 and was paid an amount of R50 000. “The Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation (SACR) is yet to institute disciplinary action against him,” Hlophe said.
She also admitted that some of the relatives of officials at her department and GFC have been doing business with her department and the film body. Hlophe said some of these people also received funding over the past five financial years.
“Yes, both Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation and Gauteng Film Commission have relatives of officials who have done business with SACR and GFC. In the Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation - Enelani Business Solutions. It was paid R279 829000.
“Sugar Lemon Entertainment/ Catering Services was paid R31 150 by the Gauteng Film Commission,” she said. Hlophe, however, said GFC was only able to identify the transaction with state officials/relatives based on a GFC declaration of information saying “thus Sugar Lemon is the only company that was identified.
“Due to limited resources and capacity, the finance unit is unable to identify any other transaction entered with relatives of the officials,” Hlophe said.