Little economic relief for unemployed residents while cost of financial misconduct in Gauteng Govt at R4.6m during 2020/21 financial year
30 November 2021
While residents continue suffering the consequences of forced unemployment due to the national government’s failed Covid-19 lockdown, It comes as no surprise that the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) has had a high number of disciplinary hearings due to financial misconduct. 56 cases of financial misconduct, at a cost of R4 627 440-52, were reported during the 2020/21 financial year, as revealed in the State of Public Service in Gauteng report that was presented to the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.
Departments listed are:
- COGTA- 5
- Community Safety- 1
- Education- 4
- e-Government- 1
- Health- 42
- Office of the Premier- 2
- Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation- 1
The Democratic Alliance ascribes this re-occurrence of financial misconduct purely to the lack of effective consequence management and has been warning departments year after year during discussions of annual reports that the situation will worsen as long as consequence management is only words on paper without any action. A long list of applicable legislation exists to assist in the curbing of financial misconduct but again as long as the political will is missing, no progress will be recorded.