Parly committee to demand reasons from State depts not conducting lifestyle audits
Chairperson Jan de Villiers said there need to be consequences for departments that do not follow through.
Chairperson of Parliament's Public Service and Administration Committee, Jan de Villiers, briefed the media on the work of his committee on 3 March 2025. Picture: PHANDO JIKELO/PARLIAMENT
CAPE TOWN - Parliament’s committee on Public Service and Administration will be demanding explanations from departments that do not conduct annual lifestyle audits.
Chairperson Jan de Villiers said there needed to be consequences for departments that do not follow through.
Briefing the media at Parliament on Monday, De Villiers said these audits are critical to rooting out corruption within the civil service, including determining whether public servants are also doing business with the State.
“Lifestyle audits are compulsory for all government departments, but not all have implemented them. So, the question remains, how many public servants were found guilty because of lifestyle audits since they were introduced? That is part of the work my committee must do as part of our oversight.”
De Villiers said the committee is also concerned about the high number of unfinalised disciplinary matters while employees continue to earn their salaries while on leave.
Poor record-keeping and the difficulty in finding presiding officers have been cited for the delays in starting these hearings.
“The backlog in misconduct cases has increased, as has the number of precautionary suspensions. The department has reported that the total cost of precautionary suspensions has stabilised at around R82 million for provinces, and R25 million for national departments. We understand that there are challenges in the disciplinary management process,” explained De Villiers.