The FF Plus is not surprised by the latest statistics indicating that 65% of Gauteng public officials on job level two through eight are guilty of financial offences.
This is evident in a report on financial crimes that was tabled in the Gauteng Legislature’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) last week.
The report considered only four departments, namely, Health, Education, Agriculture and e-Government.
This justifiably raises the question of what the true extent of financial crimes in the other departments is.
In the FF Plus’s view, top officials’ compliance with accountability management leaves much to be desired.
The Gauteng government was only able to recover a mere 8% (R5 088 513,99) of a total amount of R64 929 684,63 in lost funds from officials who had been found guilty of fraud in the 2021/22 financial year.
A total of just 48 criminal cases against Gauteng officials were concluded, namely, 25 in the Department of Health, 17 in the Department of Education, four in the Department of Agriculture, and two in e-Government.
The 48 cases of financial offences amount to an alarming loss of R66 998 422,06 of which only R2 068 737,43 is not considered a ‘direct loss for the state’.
Most of the losses can be attributed to theft (54%), fraud (25%) and irregularities in procurement processes (13%). A mere 2% was attributed to misappropriation and just 6% to negligence.
This means that criminality is the main reason why funds are lost in the four Gauteng departments in question.
In addition, it must be emphasised that the Department of Agriculture failed to submit a report which indicates how many of its officials are being prosecuted for financial crimes.
It means that the extent to which funds are stolen and officials are enriching themselves through the state coffers is even greater.
It also appears that there is no consistency in how management acts against officials guilty of financial crimes.
In one case, the official was dismissed and the full amount was recovered from him, while another official simply had to pay a spot fine of R5 000.
It is also alarming that the management of these departments fail to lodge criminal charges against those officials guilty of theft and fraud in cases where the value of the offence amounts to more than R100 000.
The statistics indicate that only 19% of all cases are reported for criminal prosecution.
It is, therefore, blatantly obvious that Gauteng public officials are helping themselves to the state coffers to the detriment of service delivery to the wider community.
It is time to unseat the ANC in Gauteng in the 2024 elections and to replace it with a Multi-party Charter, of which the FF Plus is part, to ensure better governance.
