KwaZulu-Natal departments have been able to recover only a fraction of the billions of rands that were lost due to employee misconduct.

This is according to the Public Service Commission (PSC), whose role is to investigate, monitor, and evaluate the quality of public services.

Out of the R7.1b lost due to employee misconduct, provincial departments were only able to recover R190 000 from the implicated employees.

KZN PSC provincial commissioner

Briefing the KZN Legislature yesterday, KZN PSC provincial commissioner Yasmin Bacus said departments appear to be reluctant to recover the lost funds from the implicated employees.

“It appears that commitment on the part of departments to recover monies is lacking, as observed from the reports of the past three financial years.”

Bacus said the PSC has also been receiving complaints from whistleblowers and members of the public about the conduct of some of the province’s civil servants.

When the commission attempted to investigate the complaints, Bacus said, most of the department heads did not co-operate.

“They did not respond,” the commissioner said.

In instances where action is taken against civil servants implicated in financial misconduct, the punishment appears to be light, Bacus said.

“Often the extent of the misconduct doesn’t match the extent of the punishment.”

KZN is one of the provinces with a particularly high number of cases involving violations of the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999.

Auditor-general

Auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke, who also addressed members of the KZN Legislature on Tuesday, attributed the poor financial reporting on the part of some of the provincial departments and municipalities to an unwillingness to comply with the law.

MPL and members of the public, Maluleke said: “Should ‘ensure that every single public servant observes the rule of law’.

Should department officials want to change the laws, Maluleke said, they should follow the relevant processes.

“We don’t change the rules by ignoring them.”

Maluleke told the MPLs that it was vital for departments to appoint ‘competent people’ to the right positions.

“It should be people who have an ethical posture. They should then be given space to operate on their mandate without the interference of the political leadership.”