PUBLIC Service and Administration Minister Ayanda Dlodlo said it was the responsibility of individual departments to hold responsible officials who irregularly obtained the R350 grants and conducted business with the state.
Speaking at the post-State of the Nation Address briefing to unpack progress made in the past year and share key areas to take forward in the next financial year, Dlodlo said each department has a labour relations unit and director general.
“It falls within the ambit of that department to ensure that discipline is effected when transgressions are made,” she said.
Asked whether her department would take action against officials who irregularly obtained the R350 grants, Dlodlo said it was not her department that would take action.
“It is the various departments who know who the culprits are in the departments. What we can do is to provide technical assistance through the Technical Assistance Unit (TAU) to ensure disciplinary action does not take two years or three or four years,” she said.
Dlodlo also said it was the responsibility of departments to take action against officials doing business with the state.
“That information is taken to the director generals’ forum. It becomes their responsibility to take action against state employees who do business with the state.
“The minister said her department had for a few months reported on people already under investigation and those already convicted for transgressions.
“We are on track on this one. We will be able to pull it off if we get maximum support to ensure that people are brought to book,” she said.
Meanwhile, Dlodlo said the lifestyle audits for officials were introduced in April 2021 and were being implemented across the public service.
“The lifestyle audits in the public service became compulsory, with the adoption of a Guide to implement lifestyle audits in the Public Service,” she said.
The minister also said the promulgation of the public administration management regulations would ensure the proper implementation of the Public Administration Management Act, which provided for the prohibition of employees doing business with the state, lifestyle audits and ensuring compliance with minimum norms and standards prescribed for the public administration.
Dlodlo also said TAU has dealt with a few issues in cases of ethics, integrity and also technical assistance to departments to deal with backlogs on discipline.
However, Dlodlo said ministers were part of the lifestyle audit the civil servants were being subjected to.
“The president has said on quite a number of platforms that at some point, we need to do lifestyle audits,” she said when asked.
She said the Western Cape and Gauteng had begun the lifestyle audits for members of the executive.
“Members will have to undergo this process of lifestyle audits. It starts with the declaration of interest of public servants,” Dlodlo said before briefly explaining how the lifestyle audit process was conducted on officials who lived beyond the salaries they earned.
Dlodlo also said her department was working towards improving the whistle-blowing regime, especially for the protection of whistle-blowers.
“The fight against corruption requires that we take away the personal burden and high costs that come with being an honest public servant and South African.”
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