Close to 80 Eastern Cape senior administrators failed to declare their direct involvement in companies doing business with the state.
This is despite the practice of civil servants trading with government departments being outlawed by the national government.
The Bhisho legislature’s Office of the Premier portfolio committee yesterday heard that 76 senior managers failed to disclose their interests in firms that traded with the state in the 2014-15 financial year.
In a presentation by the province’s Public Service Commission (PSC) head Singatha Mafanya, it was revealed that the 76 were among the 700 senior management services (SMS) members across all departments. Mafanya said it was a struggle to get all the provincial SMS members to declare their interests, adding “in recent years, we have never received a 100% compliance in that regard”.
Mafanya said of those who had submitted declarations, the PSC identified five cases of “actual conflict of interest” where members were doing business with their own departments in 2014-15.
Mafanya told the committee chaired by ANC MPL Sicelo Gqobana that his commission had found that in 173 cases there was “a potential conflict of interest”, that could only be proven once further investigations were conducted by the MECs of those departments.
He said SMS members in rural development and agrarian reform – followed closely by those at economic development, environmental affairs and tourism – were the main culprits.
“Those SMS members are meant to submit their disclosure forms to their executive authority, which then forwards copies to the PSC.
“However in recent years we have never received 100%.
“From those who submitted their forms we found that some disclosed some companies while forgetting to disclose other companies.
“We discovered that some have even forgotten to disclose their wine estates, while others have forgotten to disclose the houses they stay in,” Mafanya said.
He told the committee that his commission’s hands were tied when it came to “dealing” with those who failed to disclose, as that was the competency of the executive authority in those departments.
“We are mostly told that there was no action taken against those people by the executive authority because he or she was satisfied with the responses given by those SMS members.
“Therefore if the executive authority is saying they are satisfied with the responses given to them for such, then who are we as the PSC not to be satisfied,” he said.
Financial declaration forms are submitted to the MECs every end of April and later to the PSC at the end of May every year.
Mafanya said declaration forms for the 2015-16 financial year would be submitted to his office later this month.
He also revealed that there was a huge number of provincial SMS members who were in government employ despite not undergoing the compulsory competency assessment tests when they were employed as required by legislation.
He said the tests were “to fill competency gaps” and that failure to conduct them rendered the recruitment process “flawed”.
PSC fails to stem illegal trade
This is despite the practice of civil servants trading with government departments being outlawed by the national government.
The Bhisho legislature’s Office of the Premier portfolio committee yesterday heard that 76 senior managers failed to disclose their interests in firms that traded with the state in the 2014-15 financial year.
In a presentation by the province’s Public Service Commission (PSC) head Singatha Mafanya, it was revealed that the 76 were among the 700 senior management services (SMS) members across all departments. Mafanya said it was a struggle to get all the provincial SMS members to declare their interests, adding “in recent years, we have never received a 100% compliance in that regard”.
Mafanya said of those who had submitted declarations, the PSC identified five cases of “actual conflict of interest” where members were doing business with their own departments in 2014-15.
Mafanya told the committee chaired by ANC MPL Sicelo Gqobana that his commission had found that in 173 cases there was “a potential conflict of interest”, that could only be proven once further investigations were conducted by the MECs of those departments.
He said SMS members in rural development and agrarian reform – followed closely by those at economic development, environmental affairs and tourism – were the main culprits.
“Those SMS members are meant to submit their disclosure forms to their executive authority, which then forwards copies to the PSC.
“However in recent years we have never received 100%.
“From those who submitted their forms we found that some disclosed some companies while forgetting to disclose other companies.
“We discovered that some have even forgotten to disclose their wine estates, while others have forgotten to disclose the houses they stay in,” Mafanya said.
He told the committee that his commission’s hands were tied when it came to “dealing” with those who failed to disclose, as that was the competency of the executive authority in those departments.
“We are mostly told that there was no action taken against those people by the executive authority because he or she was satisfied with the responses given by those SMS members.
“Therefore if the executive authority is saying they are satisfied with the responses given to them for such, then who are we as the PSC not to be satisfied,” he said.
Financial declaration forms are submitted to the MECs every end of April and later to the PSC at the end of May every year.
Mafanya said declaration forms for the 2015-16 financial year would be submitted to his office later this month.
He also revealed that there was a huge number of provincial SMS members who were in government employ despite not undergoing the compulsory competency assessment tests when they were employed as required by legislation.
He said the tests were “to fill competency gaps” and that failure to conduct them rendered the recruitment process “flawed”.
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