Public Service Commissioner in the province, Henk Boshoff, tells OFM News these cases span across six different departments. In terms of the public service regulation, no public servant is allowed to do business with the state. Once this is done, it is regarded as an offence and needs to be dealt with by the relevant executive authorities which will be the respective member of the executive council (MEC) and/or the premier of the province.

The Public Service Commissioner is unable to get into much detail on the cases, but confirms they were taken up with said executive authorities for further investigation.

“We have received responses in all seven cases. It’s employee matters, so I don’t want to disclose exactly what was conveyed to us. But yes, we did receive feedback from the executive authorities and we are comfortable that it was handled correctly by the departments,” says Boshoff. He elaborates on the ramifications of government officials being found guilty of having had contravened public service regulations. These include dismissal and the possibility of criminal charges being brought against the government official.

The Public Service Regulations of 2016, requires senior management service (SMS) members and department heads to disclose their financial interests to the relevant executive authorities mentioned above annually, come end of April. Boshoff explains that they, in turn, forward the submissions to the Public Servants Commission for analysis before 31 May each year. The PSC then scrutinises the disclosures and revert back to the provincial leadership, should they pick up any actual conflicts of interest, as they did over the 2019/20 financial year.

In the Free State, 100% of the senior government officials in management positions disclosed their financial interests, while in the Northern Cape, only one senior government official at management level in the province did not disclose his/her financial interests to the provincial executive ahead of the 30 April deadline. This left the Northern Cape with a 99,5% disclosure rate.

Boshoff has also weighed in on the Public Service and Administration Minister, Senzo Mchunu’s concern at the high number of public servants that fail to disclose their interest and conduct business with the State, adding he believes Mchunu was referring to national departments, which have a very low disclosure rate, as opposed to provincial departments.

OFM News