Some 520 officials in national and provincial departments have been investigated for corruption, theft, fraud and irregular expenditure amounting to R1.2 billion, according to the Public Service Commission (PSC).
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The officials were dismissed, in some instances, while others faced criminal charges in court.
According to the PSC, out of the R1.2 billion that was lost through corruption, R1 billion was in the national departments and over R230 million in the provinces.
The commission also urged government employees to blow the whistle on corruption.
In the report that was tabled in Parliament recently for the 2021/22 financial year, the commission said 520 officials faced disciplinary hearings for financial misconduct.
‘Out of 520 officials charged with financial misconduct during the 2021/2022 financial year, only 23 were criminally charged,’ stated the report. ‘The national departments recorded the highest number of cases (265), followed by Eastern Cape (83), Limpopo (49), Gauteng (48), Western Cape (32) and Free State Province (24). The total monies lost due to financial misconduct, for both the national and provincial departments was R1 294 928 734 85. The highest amount lost due to financial misconduct (R1 056 865 287 87) was in the national departments.’
‘The provincial departments reported a total of R238 063 446 98 as monies that were lost due to financial misconduct during the period under review. In total, the amount of monies recovered was only R6 123 708 77 (0.47%) of the total that was involved.’
‘The national departments recovered R555 636 18 (0.05%) of the total amounts that they have reported. The provincial departments recovered R5 568 072 59 (2.34%) of the said amounts. The Limpopo province performed much better in terms of recovery of the loss that it had suffered. This province managed to recover R81 837 87 (20%) of the R406 001 17 that it had lost. Three provinces did not recover anything. They are Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and North West.’
The report also found non-compliance with procurement processes in these cases.
It added that some of the officials involved in corruption were in senior management positions.
In various reports, the Auditor-General has noted that corruption happened in procurement.
In some of the instances, there was no paper trail for goods and services procured, making it difficult for the Auditor-General to make a finding and determine if a particular department or municipality got value for money.
In its report, the PSC called on heads of departments to take action against officials who flout the Public Finance Management Act.
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