Cabinet's lifestyle audits are finally under way, says Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the director-general in the Presidency, Phindile Baleni, is leading the much-awaited lifestyle audits of members of his executive.

Ramaphosa told parliament on Tuesday that after several delays, the audits were firmly under way.

“This process is being led by the director-general, and one of the reasons [for this] is because even members’ interests are managed by the DG in her office and we wanted this process to reside there and to be properly administered,” he said, answering MPs’ questions in the National Assembly.

“It is in that regard that these audits are now continuing.”

The aim of the lifestyle audits was to collect as much information as possible, some of which already resides in Baleni’s office as she is the repository of the information on all of the members of the national executive.

“This had initially been outsourced, [but] in the end we found that the coverage of what we sought was not as effective as we wanted it. It is now in the right place, under the right management, and the process continues.

“And this does so even as we continue now and that office has sourced competent, skilled personnel with experience in conducting lifestyle audits. A capacity-building exercise took longer than anticipated, but it is firmly under way,” he said.

It is the first time that the national government is conducting lifestyle audits on its members and it requires new systems that have now been put in place. It also requires processes and methodologies that should be deployed so that it brings to bear all the information that is required, said Ramaphosa.

He said the DG will decide on the appropriate way to communicate the outcomes of the audit once completed.

DA leader John Steenhuisen reminded Ramaphosa that he promised to conduct the lifestyle audits on the members of the executive back in 2018 when he was elected president the first time. He said he should take blame for untoward behaviour of members of the executive since then.

Ramaphosa said: “It is indeed a very serious matter that requires the serious attention we are bringing to bear on it. I’m quite satisfied the process we have now embarked on, a process that is going to streamline how this is done and also be a very good precedent to following administrations, will be such that we have good system, good process to address the issue of lifestyle audits.”

The president said any member found to have mismanaged funds of the state or acted in an untoward manner will face the consequences of the law.

Ramaphosa told the National Assembly last September that the national lifestyle process had hit a snag due to a change in service providers.

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