Public service department gears up for lifestyle audit imbizo

Deputy minister of public service and administration Chana Pilane-Majake said on Wednesday her department was ready to proceed with lifestyle audits.

“On April 1 2021, minister for public service and administration Ayanda Dlodlo approved a guide to implement lifestyle audits in public service. This compelled national and provincial departments to conduct lifestyle audits as a part of a continuous risk management process.

“Lifestyle audits have to be conducted every year for senior management service members and every second year for non-senior management service managers. It is therefore a continuous process,” she said. 

Pilane-Majake, who briefed the National Assembly on the state of readiness to conduct the audits, told MPs that the department’s ethics integrity and disciplinary technical task unit provided implementation support to ethics officers to ensure departments properly implemented the guide.

“The public service is ready to continue with lifestyle audits and the unit will continue supporting departments but also monitor and assess the effectiveness of the process and improve the process as we continue,” she said.

Pilane-Majake’s remarks come as the department prepares to host a lifestyle audit indaba on Thursday and Friday.

The indaba will be conducted by the public administration ethics, integrity and disciplinary technical assistance unit chief directorate headed by Dr Salomon Hoogenraad-Vermaak.  

The department said the workshop will look deeper into the national strategy to build a capable and ethical state, and give support to ethics officers delegated to perform this task.

During his presentation, Hoogenraad-Vermaak told MPs the challenge was that ethics officers were designated and not appointed.

“That means that the task doesn’t happen everywhere properly ... During the monitoring process we also detected that there is a lack of knowledge among the ethics officers to determine when employees are living beyond their means.”

He said the lifestyle audits will not be a one-off process but one “that will continue over time”.

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