Government’s payroll and size of top management are excessive

17 May 2018

Government’s payroll is excessive, unsustainable and heading for disaster. The size of top management is also excessive with excessive salaries. And yet there is no proper service delivery.

Despite their large salaries, these officials are apparently still unable to do their jobs and then advisors are appointed, with remuneration packages that are just as exorbitant, to do their jobs for them.

Ministers and deputy ministers are appointing political officials in their offices and paying them extremely high salaries. When cabinets are reshuffled, these people are sent to divisions where they are of no use. There are numerous examples of high-level officials that make no contribution to service delivery because they were appointed solely for political reasons.

The regulation that stipulates that senior management officials must declare their interests is complied with in most cases, but the question remains: what happens to that information? Who checks the information year after year to determine whether there are any irregularities regarding officials’ assets and financial means. It simply is not done.

The tendency to appoint officials, particularly high-level officials, for political reasons must be done away with.

The government is quick to boast that it takes decisive action against officials who do business with the government. It is, however, a shame that it happens in the first place. It has also not been eradicated as it is still happening. Some of the guilty parties are still filling high positions in the ruling party, like the Secretary General Ace Magashule.

The ANC must get rid of him without further ado if the ruling party wants to show that it is serious about eradicating corruption.

Issued by Wouter Wessels, FF Plus parliamentary spokesperson: Public Service and Administration, 17 May 2018