SOUTH AFRICA
At least 20 South African Public Servants have been referred to law enforcement Agencies for investigation and prosecution, the Department of Public Service and Administration has announced.
The offences relate to organisations in which the PS employees have an interest doing business with the Government, which is illegal under a law that came into force on 1 April.
In August 2016, officials were given until February 2017 to relinquish directorship posts in companies.
Minister for Public Service and Administration, Senzo Mchunu (pictured) said the officers charged had failed to do this and were therefore in contravention of the Public Administration Management Act.
“The list with 20 names was handed to the South African Police Service on 24 June to conduct investigations and, based on their findings, to request the National Prosecuting Authority to prosecute them,” Mr Mchunu said.
The Minister said his Department identified the officials based on information obtained from the central supplier database provided by the National Treasury.
“This database contains a register of all individuals registered to tender for business with the state and is maintained by the National Treasury,” Mr Mchunu said.
“The information obtained from this database is compared with information on the Personnel Salary System, which then identified the Public Service employees registered on the database.”
He said the Public Service Commission was in constant contact with the ethics officers of the various Departments, reminding them to ensure their Departments complied with the Government’s Financial Disclosure Framework.
“The Public Service Commission continuously made follow-ups with the ethics officers where the submission of financial disclosures was moving slowly,” Mr Mchunu said.
Pretoria, 18 September 2019
