Scopa members expressed their frustration at learning that some officials from the Department of Public Works who were under investigation had resigned from their positions, bringing an end to the process of holding them accountable. Picture: Piyapong Saydaung/Pixabay
Durban — Members of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) want stricter measures taken against public servants implicated in corruption who job-hop as a way of avoiding prosecution.
Scopa members expressed their frustration at learning that some officials from the Department of Public Works who were under investigation had resigned from their positions, bringing an end to the process of holding them accountable.
The officials across the province were facing a range of charges, including:
Scopa chairperson Maggie Govender said at a meeting on Friday, “There is understandable frustration on the part of committee members in the implementation of consequence management. It is an issue which we take very seriously as Scopa and as the ANC.”
Among the drastic measures proposed was the freezing of pensions of implicated officials which Govender said had already been done at the Department of Health.
“What we want to see is cost recovery and details of officials who have jumped ship to other departments. There is a standing position on this that when an official moves to another department, the disciplinary matter is handed from the previous department to the other department,” Govender said.
Head of department Siboniso Majola told Scopa they were taking firm action against implicated officials, but this meant that disciplinary cases had to be concluded before any punitive measures could be taken.
“We are taking serious steps when it comes to disciplinary action. The hearings are under way and we are hoping the first batch of cases will be concluded in the first quarter of the new financial year (June 2024),” Majola said.
Majola said that they normally conducted their own investigations and only once they had determined that they did not have sufficient capacity they would approach the Office of the Premier for assistance.
He conceded that there was a trend of implicated officials jumping ship before investigations could be concluded.
“We take into account the advice that we should freeze the pensions and recoup what is owed to the department while the investigation continues with the South African Police Service.”
Majola said through the government’s Persal system, the cases against the implicated officials would be recorded so that when they applied at other departments their records would be revealed. While the system worked at provincial government level, he indicated that such a mechanism had not been developed with municipalities.
The HOD used the meeting to express concern at the slow turnaround in payment from government departments, telling the committee how this was hamstringing the department’s service delivery plans. It emerged that the department had been owed R702 million by different departments, including Social Development and the Department of Education by the end of January this year.
“The issue of Inter-Departmental Accounts (IDA) has a negative impact on the department’s performance. The IDA is a pain in the neck,” Majola told the committee.
He pointed out that the non-payment by departments had a knock-on effect and often resulted in non- compliance by Public Works when they could not pay their service providers.
He said that some of the government debts were above 60 days and this showed how slow they were in paying Public Works.
“As much as there are engagements from various structures within government, it is one of the issues that was discussed, even at Cabinet, to say we do have a problem when it comes to govern debt,” Majola said.
By the end of March the department was owed R691 million, with the hope that departments would settle their debts when they received their 2024/25 budget allocations next month.
Sunday Tribune