Question NW493 to the MINISTER OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION

Reply:

(a) The number of the 20 public service employees found to have conducted business with the State is not known to the DPSA. The list with 20 names was handed to the South African Police Service (SAPS) on 24 June 2019 to conduct investigations and, based on their findings, to request the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to prosecute those in contravention of section 8 of the Public Administration Management Act, Act 11 of 2014. As section 8 of the Public Administration Management Act only came into effect on 1 April 2019, and conducting business with the State became an offence for public service employees only then, the name list submitted to the Police and NPA only contains employees who are in contravention of the Public Administration Management Act since 1 April 2019.

(b) This department identified the 20 public service employees as possibly conducting business with the State, based on information obtained from the Central Supplier Database, as provided by National Treasury. This database contains a register of all individuals registered to tender for business with the State and is maintained by National Treasury. The information obtained from this database is compared with information on the Personnel Salary System (PERSAL) which then identified the public service employees registered on the database.

(c) The following mechanisms have been put in place to detect public service employees who are conducting business with the State:

• The DPSA affected changes to the Personnel Salary System (PERSAL) to allow departments to capture requests from employees to perform other remunerative work on it. This data captured on PERSAL is then analysed and compared with information on the eDisclosure system to detect possible cases of employees conducting business with the State. Departments’ management of other remunerative work (as captured on PERSAL) are monitored by the DPSA and a report is drafted annually, which is distributed to departments. The DPSA also annually drafts a report based on the information submitted to the eDisclosure system, which exposes those employees conducting private work without permission and promotes the detection of employees possibly conducting business with the State.
• Information is extracted from the Central Supplier Database, which contains a register of all individuals registered to tender for business with the State and is maintained by National Treasury. This data is analysed and compared to data on PERSAL, so as to identify public service employees. These employees are then deregistered by National Treasury from the database. The DPSA draft a statistical report containing data from the Central Supplier Database on employees possibly conducting business with the State and submits it annually to Cabinet.
• Based on the information received from the Central Supplier Database, the DPSA directs letters to departments to encourage them to confirm that the identified individuals were indeed conducting business with the State, were till in Government employ and to encourage them to take action where needed and to report the steps taken against culprits to the DPSA. This information is also included in the statistical report presented to Cabinet.
• The DPSA also increased awareness on the detection of employees conducting business with the State among Ethics Officers of the various departments by means of hosting an annual National Ethics Officer Forum.