Public Service and Administration Minister Noxolo Kiviet has revealed that R1.5 billion has been lost due to financial misconduct committed by civil servants in national and provincial departments.
Responding to DA MP Mimmy Gondwe about the disciplinary cases referred to in the report by the Public Service Commission recently tabled in Parliament, Kiviet said the Public Service Commission found that the number of financial misconduct cases as reported by national and provincial departments was 523 during the 2021-22 financial year.
“The national departments reported the majority of cases (268) with provincial departments having reported 255 cases during the period under review,” she said.
She said the total lost due to financial misconduct was R1,565,947,264.46.
“The highest amount lost due to financial misconduct, R1,327,883,817.48, was in the national departments.
The provincial departments reported a total of R238,063,446.98 as monies that were lost due to financial misconduct during the period under review.”
Kiviet said the amount recovered was only R6,123,708.77.
“The national departments recovered R555,636.18 (0.05%) of the total amounts that they have reported,” she said.
“The provincial departments recovered R5,568,072.59 (2.34%) of the said amounts.”
Kiviet’s responses showed that 265 officials were implicated in financial misconduct cases at national departments where the amount lost was R1,056,865,287.87.
The breakdown of officials involved in financial misconduct, amounts lost and recovered per province included:
- Eastern Cape: 80 officials involved financial misconduct cases that led to losses amounting to R712,215,502.30, with R8,253.13 recovered;
- Free State: 23 officials involved in financial misconduct that led to losses of R10,362,090.91, with R 8,093.31 recouped;
- Gauteng: 46 officials implicated in financial misconduct cases that led to R67,003,121.02 losses and R5,468,814.61 was recovered;
- KwaZulu-Natal: Two officials involved in financial misconduct cases amounting to R120,309.12 with no monies recovered;
- Limpopo: 44 officials, with R449,117.67 lost and only R81,837.87 was recovered;
- Mpumalanga: eight officials; the amount lost due to financial misconduct was R8,569,437.03 with R6000 recovered;
- Northern Cape: five officials involved in financial misconduct cases where R100,741.54 was lost and R1999.98 was recovered;
- North West: seven officials lost R110,531,932.10 due to financial misconduct and R19,964 was recovered; and
- Western Cape: 33 officials involved in financial misconduct, with R264,933.18 lost and only R33,789.50 recovered.
Cape Times