PSC receives over 700,000 govt corruption tip-offs in first three months of 2022

The Public Service Commission (PSC) has raised concerns over the high number of tip-offs it has received in recent months on alleged corruption in government.

The PSC on Tuesday released its quarterly bulletin on the state of the public service for the period 1 January to 31 March 2022.

The commission revealed that it received a total of 701 227 calls through its National Anti-Corruption Hotline (NACH) on alleged corruption in the first three months of this year. These included dropped calls and those which were made for purposes of inquiries and seeking advice.

The complaints from the public related to, among others, procurement irregularities, fraud and corruption.

“A cumulative figure of 25 100 case reports were generated and referred to the departments and public bodies/entities for investigation. During the fourth quarter of 2021/2022 financial year, the PSC recorded a total of 597 cases.

“These cases are slightly higher than 347 cases received in the third quarter and 282 received in the second quarter of 2021/2022 financial year. There has been a slight increase in the reporting of cases through the NACH,” the PSC said in its Pulse of Public Service Quarterly Bulletin.

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The PSC attributed the high number of calls received by the NACH to increased awareness of legislation relating to the protection of whistle-blowers such as the Protected Disclosures Act.

“This may also be due to the fact that whistle blowing is no longer viewed as a negative act as it was under the previous dispensation thus removing some of the stigma that is often associated with whistle blowing.

“In addition, during the reporting period there was a release of the Zondo state capture report which might have motivated members of the public to blow the whistle on corruption,” the PSC said in its report.

Complaints per province

The highest number of complaints in the period under review came from Gauteng (41), Eastern Cape (13) and Free State (8).

“The largest proportion of complaints was received in the month of March [2022] with 252 complaints. The NACH received 152 complaints in the month of November 2021 whilst in the month of April 2021, 133 complaints were received.

“In the month of January 2022, a total of 130 complaints were received and 215 complaints were received in the month of February 2022.”

The PSC said it investigated some of these complaints, while others were referred to the relevant government departments for action to be taken.  Some of the cases were reported to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the Office of the Public Protector.

Cases of alleged corruption can be reported to the NACH at 0800 701 701 or verbally in person at any of the national or provincial offices of the commission.

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