300 officials ‘stole’ over R200m

Unabated and rampant financial criminality in the legislature just in Makhura, Mokonyane tenures

OVER 300 Gauteng government officials have been charged with acts of financial criminality amounting to more than R200 million in the tenure of Premier David Makhura alone, just from 2014.

Finance and e-government MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko disclosed this in a reply to written questions to the legislature by the DA’s spokesperson for finance Adriana Randall.

Randall asked Nkomo-Ralehoko to also give details of the number of cases reported and investigated by the Gauteng forensic unit during the same period.

In her reply, Nkomo-Ralehoko said 326 Gauteng staff members were implicated in cases of financial misconduct relating to R225m.

The highest amounts of financial misconduct were reported in 2015, when 64 officials were charged with financial misconduct of R153m.

In 2016, the financial misconduct amounts dropped substantially to less than R800 000, but rose to more than R60m in 2017, with 74 staff members charged.

Last year, the Gauteng government experienced a massive drop in financial misconduct amounts, despite charging 73 staff members.

All 73 members were charged for offences amounting to R272 363.

In this year alone, 16 officials have already been charged with offences involving R10m.

Nkomo-Ralehoko said the 2018 figures and those recorded this year were just preliminary numbers as they were awaiting finalisation from the departments on confirmation of losses incurred so far.

When asked about disciplinary measures taken against the officials, Nkomo-Ralehoko said in terms of section 38 of the Public Finance Management Act, it was up to the respective accounting officers of the departments to take action.

Nkomo-Ralehoko also said the departments had yet to provide her office with reports of efforts they had taken to recover the monies lost to corruption.

She, however, said that the Gauteng forensic unit had investigated and made findings on several matters – and that some of the offences dated from 2012 to April 2014, while Nomvula

Mokonyane was premier.

In December last year, the Public Service Commission (PSC) urged the national and provincial governments to act swiftly against public servants who steal public funds, after more than R500 000 million disappeared from the legislature in 2017 alone.

A total of 1 150 public servants were charged in 2017.

According to the PSC, that was the highest number of officials to be charged since 2014.

Reacting to the revelations, Randall said: “It is worrying that 326 employees entrusted with public funds as well as delivering services to the people have been implicated in such unacceptable and illegal practices.

“This has resulted in the departments losing R225.2 m to corruption,” she said.

The MEC said 279 cases had been referred to the Gauteng forensic unit in the department of finance.

And of these only 210 cases had been finalised.”

She added that the forensic unit had appeared before the standing committee on public accounts, saying they did not get the necessary co-operation from the departments where cases of fraud and corruption had been identified.

“There is also an unwillingness of the departments to recover losses resulting from fraud and corruption, as well as slow progress from lawenforcement in criminal investigations,” Randall said.

The DA would be tabling further questions to the MEC,” she said.