End of civil-servant business

CIVIL servants will be banned from doing business with the government and those found guilty of corruption or financial misconduct will be blacklisted from working for the public service.

These are some of the proposals by Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who is preparing amendments to the Public Service Act.

The proposed changes will bar civil servants from holding directorships or being involved in companies that do business with the state.

Sisulu also plans to set up an office of standards compliance in her department.

It will be headed by a "super-director-general" whose job will be to crack the whip on poor-performing directors-general and provincial heads of departments.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Sisulu explained her plans to turn around the fortunes of the civil service, which she said was enjoying little public confidence.

She said it was time public servants chose between serving the state and being in private business.

"We are very worried about the incidents or overlap of people doing business with the state [when they are] employed by the state," she said.

"I think that if we cut that umbilical cord, we might succeed in making sure that we are creating a cadre of the public service who is concerned [with] and only concentrating on the job, and not doing the job but at the same time benefiting from the state."

The issue of civil servants benefiting from government procurement has been in the spotlight since 2010, when the auditor-general revealed that tenders worth more than R624-million went to companies with links to civil servants, their spouses or family members.

Sisulu added that her department would now keep a data-base of government officials found with their hands in the till.

There has been concern in and outside the government about officials who resign from one department to join another when they face internal investigations into fraud.

"You will be recorded - in local terminology it is called blacklisted.

"You will be there and you will be unemployable because you have been found guilty of serious fraud and corruption.

"This is one of the ways in which we are going to be able to deal with this matter."

She said the cabinet was now thoroughly screening all senior appointments it made to root out potential appointees guilty of transgressions while employed by other government departments or entities.

Turning to the proposed "super-director-general", she said the official would ensure that all heads of department adhered to public service regulations and that reward for performance was linked to audit outcomes.

Until now, trade union federation Cosatu has been the lone voice in asking for a law that bans civil servants from doing business with the state.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has lauded Sisulu's plans and said the move would help to stop the "looting" of public funds by government employees.

"That would be the biggest move that will lead to serious celebration everywhere by people who are concerned about that scourge [of corruption] ... We can only say halala to that," said Vavi.