The latest report of the Public Service Commission (PSC) into cases of financial misconduct in national and provincial government departments provides a snapshot of on-going high levels of fraud and theft, but also exposes the weakness of the PSC as an oversight body.
The report covers finalised financial misconduct cases reported to the PSC for the financial year 2005/06.
It is largely statistical, failing to offer indications of real trends of abuse within the public service or a qualitative feel of how bad the problem is and how well it is being managed.
Yet the bald figures do provide some insight.
A total of 771 cases of financial misconduct was reported for the 2005/06 financial year, an increase over the 513 cases in 2004/05. But, the increase can be ascribed to the fact that more national and provincial departments submitted reports to the PSC during the 2005/06 financial year. Only one, the Gauteng education department, failed to submit a report — a marked improvement on previous years.
But the statistics raise doubts about the extent to which provincial departments especially are actively pursuing cases of financial misconduct.
The PSC report itself notes that the percentage of cases reported by national departments increased to 41% of the total.
‘This is noteworthy considering that, according to a headcount for the public service as at February 28 2006, national departments employ 32%, whereas provinces employ 68% of the total number of employees in the public service.â€
The report suggests that this shows not that national departments are more prone to abuse but that financial misconduct is not actively pursued in the provinces.
‘This seems to be a more plausible reason given that research conducted by the PSC — into selected departments in five provinces has confirmed that departments were not effectively managing discipline and that a disturbing proportion of managers were not aware of what was required should they be confronted with misconduct.â€
Notable is the number of provincial departments that claimed that there were no finalised cases during the relevant year.
Of the 105 provincial departments, 54 departments submitted a nil report.
The PSC itself casts doubt on the accuracy of the information supplied, noting: ‘Despite the provision of the reporting format and requests to provide comprehensive details to the PSC, some departments once again failed to comply with the reporting format and others submitted insufficient information. Furthermore, the information provided in many instances appeared not to have been quality checked.â€
Despite being empowered to investigate management in the public service, the PSC appears under-resourced and there is little evidence of proactive action by the oversight body.
This is particularly evident in the case of the failure of departments to lay criminal complaints in cases where the amount involved exceeds R100 000, as is required by law.
The report reveals that criminal proceedings were instituted against employees in only 25% (198) of the cases, despite the fact that 81% of employees charged internally were found guilty.
Of the 38 cases involving amounts of R100 000 and more, criminal charges were laid in only 15 instances, but the PSC report provides no indication of follow-up action, despite the fact that failure to report such cases to the police in itself constitutes an offence.
This example also highlights the problems in the PSC’s methodology. Although accounting officers in departments are compelled to supply the names of officials charged, the PSC does not supply such details, meaning corrupt officials might hide behind a cloak of anonymity that probably allows them to quietly move on to other pastures.
In terms of the broad figures, at a national level, the department of justice and constitutional development reported the highest number (86) of finalised cases for the 2005/06 financial year.
The defence department (74 cases) and the South African Police Service (63 cases) respectively had the second- and third-highest number of cases.
The report notes the SAPS has ascribed the increase in cases — nearly double the previous year — to the fact that more training has been provided to managers, which has given rise to more effective monitoring.
The report comments: ‘If training has given rise to such a substantial increase in the number of cases in the SAPS, it raises the question of what the picture would have looked like if training was provided in all departments.â€
Of the provinces, the Eastern Cape reported the highest number of finalised cases (173). This figure represents a considerable increase from the 52 cases reported in 2004/05, which the report ascribes to the efforts of an interim management team — from national government — which rendered support to the province.