It would be premature to recommend that Parliament punish Cabinet ministers who failed to declare directorships with companies, Auditor General Shauket Fakie told the South African Broadcasting Corporation on Monday.
In his 2004/05 report presented to Parliament last week, Fakie found that 14 Cabinet ministers, including Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, had violated the parliamentary code of conduct in this way.
However, the Presidency later said most of the undeclared business interests of Cabinet ministers and their deputies were in companies that no longer existed.
Fakie himself revealed on Monday that his finding was partly based on outdated information.
”That database is not up to date. And so it also places responsibility on the officials to chase them and make sure that if they are no longer directors they remove their names from the register of directors as well.”
Fakie said he would be conducting a follow-up probe to see if there were repeat offenders and it would be in that event that punitive action would be appropriate.
In the meantime, parliamentary ethics committee chairperson Llewelyn Landers has indicated that the committee may request a meeting with the auditor general to clarify certain questions.
Democratic Alliance chief whip Douglas Gibson told Parliament last week that a recent report by the auditor general found 50 000 public servants in 142 departments had failed to declare their business interests. — Sapa