Government ignores 85% of Public Service Commission recommendations

19 May 2021

Note to Editors: Please find attached a soundbite by Leon Schreiber MP.

The DA can today reveal that during the 2019/2020 financial year, national and provincial government departments ignored a staggering 85% of all recommendations issued following investigations by the Public Service Commission (PSC). These statistics, which are contained in the PSC’s annual report to the National Assembly in terms of section 196(6) of the Constitution, reveal that out of the total of 550 recommendations issued by the Commission during the previous financial year, only 86 were ever implemented.

Even more alarming is the fact that 9 out of every 10 officials flagged for corruption by PSC investigations simply get away scot-free. The data show that government departments last year failed to implement 91% of all PSC recommendations related to integrity and anti-corruption matters. Out of the 130 recommendations made following investigations into corruption and integrity failures, only 12 were ever implemented.

Overall, the percentage of PSC recommendations simply ignored by government departments increased to 85% in 2019/2020 from 72% during 2018/2019, when 104 out of 359 PSC recommendations were implemented. This means that at the same time that sky-rocketing corruption and mismanagement have forced the PSC to issue more annual recommendations than before – up to 550 in 2019/2020 from 359 in 2018/2019 – government departments are simply ignoring these very same PSC recommendations at an even higher rate (85%) than before (72%).

This double-whammy of increasing corruption combined with even greater impunity is costing the people of South Africa dearly, as is clearly evidenced by the recent orgy of looting related to Covid-19 procurement.

These revelations also come a day after the ANC offered its allies in radical public sector unions a R15.6 billion wage increase, at a time when South Africa is already teetering on the brink of fiscal collapse. This means that the ANC is hellbent on milking already struggling taxpayers even more just to pay higher salaries to cadres and officials who increasingly ignore any efforts by the PSC to rein in corruption.

It is clear that these ANC cadres have nothing but disdain for taxpayers and the PSC alike, which is supposed to be South Africa’s most respected public sector ethics watchdog. The increasing contempt with which officials treat the PSC is precisely the reason why the DA’s End Cadre Deployment Bill will give the Commission far greater powers to take remedial action against rogue officials. Instead of simply ignoring the PSC, the DA’s Bill will make corrupt cadres fear the Commission. We reiterate our call on South Africans to sign our petition in support of the End Cadre Deployment Bill, so that the era of impunity can truly be brought to an end once and for all.

Issued by Leon Schreiber, DA Shadow Minister for Public Service and Administration, 19 May 2021