POLITICS

Anti-Corruption Forum has not met once in 4 years – Annette Lovemore

DA says negligence shows ANC govt not interested in fighting corruption

Anti-Corruption Forum has not met once in 4 years 

5 July 2016

reply to a DA parliamentary question has revealed that the National Anti-Corruption Forum (NACF) hasn’t convened a single meeting in four years to address the growing cases of corruption in the public service. This dereliction is indicative of the ANC government’s hollow commitment to fighting corruption in the public service and elsewhere.

Corruption is the cancer that stops service delivery to the millions of South Africans who desperately need an already bloated public service to work for them. Corruption also undermines economic development and growth needed for job creation.

I will write to the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration requesting that that the Public Service Commission (PSC)- under which the NACF falls- appear before Parliament to account for this grave dereliction of duty. The PSC is answerable to Parliament in terms of section 196(5) of the Constitution and must account for this corruption-mongering state of affairs. 

By not convening a single meeting of the NACF, the DA asserts that the PSC has failed to give effect to its constitutional mandate to “exercise its powers and perform its functions without fear, favour or prejudice in the interest of the maintenance of effective and efficient public administration and a high standard of professional ethics in the public service.”

An average of about 250 public servants are found guilty of corruption each year, following internal disciplinary processes. However, the Minister of Police has stated in another parliamentary reply that he only deals with approximately 90 cases of corruption a year.  

This means that less than 10% of corruption cases emanating from the hotline are investigated. And, according to police stats, only one third, at most, of public servants found guilty of corruption, internally, are ever reported to the police. These statistics do not speak of a high level of public sector commitment to rooting out corruption.

The Constitution of our country demands a public service in which a high standard of professional ethics must be promoted and maintained. The DA will continue to fight to ensure that government employees ethically, legally and constitutionally do so. 

South Africans are also encouraged to play their part and vote for a DA government that stops corruption and a public service that works for the people and not those public servants who prioritise greed of the people of this country.

Issued by Annette Lovemore, DA Shadow Minister of Public Service and Administration, 5 July 2016