SAPS officials are milking government
Ministry has highest number of civil servants doing business with state
The SA Police Service has earned itself the dubious record of being a government department with the highest number of civil servants (181) doing business with the state.
This was revealed yesterday to parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) by the office of the auditorgeneral (A-G).
The A-G’s report named department officials (or their close family members) who traded with their own departments even though public service laws prohibited this.
The report stated that the departments of police, justice and constitutional development, correctional services, trade and industry, public works, and public enterprises were the worst transgressors when it came to these cases of conflict of interests.
Scopa has now resolved to call these departments to explain how all of this happened.
“But if you look at the figures, you can see that the people who must be arrested actually are the police. If you look at the departments [like] ... justice and constitutional affairs, the very departments that must ensure that the law is enforced, are the ones that have gone rogue,” said Scopa chairman Themba Godi.
ANC MP Nyami Booi said they would request the A-G to provide th e names of the officials involved and the positions they occupied before deciding what action to take.
National team leader in the office of the A-G, Eugene Zungu, said however that the situation has improved since 2008, where 12 departments were implicated in these cases.
Zungu said in the 2015/2016 financial year, the SAPS had 96 suppliers where employees were directors or members of companies doing business with their own departments.
Such transactions were valued at well over R8-million.
The SAPS also topped the list in relation to tenders awarded to service providers who are close family members of employees of the department. And this was picked up in transactions valued at R6.7million.
‘ ‘ People who must be arrested are the police