Civil service fingered over graft

The report has been released by the watchdog Public Service Commission on the state of the public service and notes that government departments are not adequately following up cases of corruption and fraud, according to Business Day. Although the national anti-corruption forum for the public service was launched in 2001 and is yielding positive results, feedback from departments and government agencies to the forum still remains ‘sluggish’. Feedback was received by the forum from only 38% of cases referred to provincial departments. ‘The low feedback rate on cases referred to departments is unfortunate as it may encourage perceptions that there are high levels of corruption in the public service,’ the report says. Negative perceptions that corruption in the public service is almost endemic will be further fuelled by the fact that only 66% of senior public service managers have disclosed their financial interests for the 2005-06 financial year. The commission also highlights that the amount of unauthorised expenditure has risen threefold, and departments continue to underspend. The PSC recommends a high degree of transparency and fairness in the adjudication of tenders. Another major concern is how the Batho Pele (putting people first) initiative is also being negatively affected by the public service not being able to promote and maintain a high standard of professional ethics. Full Business Day report

Nepotism was one of the major problems noted by the watchdog body. It said that as of November 30 2006, 2 297 allegations of corruption relating to national and provincial departments had been reported. Gauteng leads, with 328 cases, followed by the Eastern Cape, with 219. According to a report in the Cape Times, the PSC said the most frequently reported cases relating to provinces dealt with alleged abuse of government-owned vehicles, as well as allegations of fraud and procurement irregularities such as nepotism. The commission cautioned that although these cases did not necessarily mean that there was corruption in these departments, they raised concerns about feedback processes. ‘Cases reported to the hotline have already led to the dismissal of 20 officials from the public service, while 17 were suspended pending finalisation of their cases,’ the commission\'s chairperson, Stan Sangweni, said. The commission also raised a concern that risk assessment and fraud prevention were conducted only in three of the 14 departments included in its cycle system. ‘If this element of financial accountability is not in place, it makes the public service vulnerable to fraud, and is not the model of accountability that one wants to portray.’ Full Cape Times report