The Democratic Alliance on Sunday demanded swift action against ministers and their deputies who failed to disclose their business interests.
”Parliament must act swiftly against all those Members of Parliament found to be in breach of the parliamentary code of conduct,” DA chief whip Douglas Gibson said.
He said that in a recent report to Parliament the Auditor General found about 50 000 public servants across 142 departments had failed to declare their business interests.
AG Shauket Fakie reported that the list included 14 Cabinet ministers and deputies.
”A failure to declare a directorship or interest in any private business is considered to be a breach of the parliamentary code of conduct and is punishable by a fine,” Gibson said.
”The DA will this week write to the public protector, advocate Lawrence Mushwana, asking that he urgently establish whether or not those … ministers implicated by the auditor general also failed to declare their interests in the register of executive member’s declarations — as required by the Executive Members Ethics Act — and whether any ministers have interests which conflict with the Cabinet code of conduct. That code is more restrictive than the parliamentary code which generally applies to ordinary MPs as well as ministers,” Gibson added.
Only the public protector, the Cabinet secretary and the president have access to the register of executive members’ declarations.
Gibson added the DA would also this week write to the chairperson of the parliamentary ethics committee, Luwellyn Landers, to ask that all MPs who failed to declare their private business interests appear before the committee.
”There is no excuse for failing to declare one’s business interests. It is simply a matter of filling out a form. Failure to do so constitutes either negligence or an attempt to conceal a possible conflict of interest or even contempt for the parliamentary ethics process. Either way, there must be consequences,” Gibson said.
A total of 20 ministers, deputy ministers and eight spouses were identified as company directors or closed corporation members.
”Of the 20, at least 14 members did not declare all their interests to the registrar and/or to the secretary of the Cabinet.”
The majority of the 1 678 designated employees, spread among national and provincial government identified as directors or members in companies and close corporations, did not disclose all of their directorships and memberships as required by the public service regulations.
A total of 50 223 non-designated employees, spread among national and provincial departments, were identified as directors or members of companies or closed corporations.
According to the registrar, all ministers and deputy ministers who had not disclosed their interests ”will be requested to update their financial interest in accordance with the code of conduct”.
All of them had been informed in writing about the investigation and were requested to follow up the matter with the auditor general.
Executive authorities had further noted that the findings of the investigations were currently being followed up and disciplinary action was being considered against a number of officials.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions on Sunday also expressed its concern at the AG’s report.
”We call upon the auditor general to make his findings public so that we can know if our fears are justified. Cosatu has frequently raised its concern that ministers and senior civil servants are involved in business, either directly or indirectly, and that this can lead to serious conflict of interest,” said spokesperson Patrick Craven. – Sapa