Cape Town - Public Service and Administration MEC Senzo Mchunu has confirmed that there is a proposal for the director-general in the Presidency to be the head of all director-generals in government.
The proposal of a super director-general was mooted a few months ago by President Cyril Ramaphosa in the reconfiguration of the state.
Mchunu said on Thursday the idea of the powers of the director-general in the Presidency is outlined in the National Development Plan.
He said there must be a review on the laws governing the public service.
“Some of the areas currently addressed in the Public Service Amendment Bill include: augmentation of the functions of the director-general in the Presidency to include the functions envisaged by the NDP for an administrative head of the public service, powers assigned to executive authorities and heads of department and an amendment to section 38 to provide an alternate mechanism for departments to lawfully deduct overpaid remuneration from an employee’s salary,” said Mchunu.
He also said they wanted Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke to clamp down on corruption in the public service.
The auditor-general has, in the past few years, been making damning findings against departments and entities in the public service with cases of corruption.
Mchunu said the auditor-general would have to use her powers in the Public Audit Act to rein in those behind any irregularities in the public service.
“Financial misconduct arising from corruption, fraud, fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure and theft needs to be addressed and curbed. To this end, we expect the auditor-general to assert their position and intensify their actions as empowered by the Public Audit Act. We cannot continue to have these negative actualities characterise our government. Over and above this expectation is that all executive authorities will take responsibility for their audit outcomes and apply the relevant consequence management processes because fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure are no longer rhetoric,” said Mchunu.
He also said they hoped a solution would be found soon between unions and the government over the wage negotiations.
The government has revised its offer from 0% to 1.5% increase and Cosatu had said it had taken it to its members.
On the other hand, the Public Servants Association had declared a dispute with the government.
The government has been pushing to cut the wage bill with Finance Minister Tito Mboweni targeting the next three years to reduce it by R300 billion.
The negotiations between the government and unions started a few weeks ago and Mchunu said all the parties should find a solution.
Political Bureau