Lesufi confirms more senior Gauteng officials failed lifestyle audits

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has confirmed that more senior officials at his provincial government have failed lifestyle audits.

Lesufi provided an update on Wednesday on the outcomes of lifestyle audits conducted on senior government officials.

The premier said he received the final reports over the weekend.

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“Of the four outstanding reports of these HODs [heads of departments], three of them again failed the audit outcome. On the basis of this, I’ve made a decision to immediately remove these HODs from their positions,” announced Lesufi.

However, a removal may not mean they are out of a job.

“What the report says is that you’re high risk where you are. So it means we must remove you and, if possible, give you responsibilities that are not high-risk. But we can’t keep you where you are because of the conflict of interest and other things identified.

“It’s one thing to get a report of a lifestyle outcome, it’s another thing to do consequence management. You have to give the affected people their right to make presentations and proper processes.

“The DG will facilitate this process and make a public announcement on the changes to the administrative heads of departments. This reaffirms our commitment to ensure that our departments are led by people with credentials.”

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Last month, the Gauteng Ethics Advisory Council released the State of Integrity and Anti-Corruption Report, which revealed that 37% senior Gauteng government officials had failed their lifestyle audits.

The 37% officials whose lifestyles were found to be inconsistent with the audits were given an opportunity to provide explanations. They were instructed to rectify the areas that the SIU was not satisfied with.

Lesufi on Gauteng forensic reports

Lesufi further announced that the province’s forensic investigations had been completed. He released the reports to the public protector, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

The reports cover alleged cases of abuse of state resources, irregular and unauthorised expenditure, theft, unfair labour practices, ghost employees, procurement irregularities, suspected fraud, HR irregularities, assault and death threats and corruption.

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The majority of these investigation reports came from the Department of Health, with 16 reports, followed by the Social Development and Community Safety departments, which each had seven reports.

Others came from the roads and transport, treasury, and human settlements departments (two reports from each), as well as the sport, arts, culture and recreation departments (three reports), to name a few.

From the 47 reports, 88 people have faced consequence management, and 55 criminal cases have been opened by the departments.

So far, the provincial government has recovered R2 million of the R3.4 million that was lost due to financial misconduct in the last quarter.

“We are serious about fighting corruption, very serious. We’re not going to defend anyone, and we’re not going to tolerate any form of crime, fraud or corruption.

“Where we believe we need to act, we will act, especially the businesses we really believe that need to be blacklisted, because these are repeat offenders. In the absence of a register to blacklist them, it makes business difficult. Now we have taken the initiative to do that as the province.”

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