Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Department of Public Service and Administration is looking into giving provincial governments more powers to expand the lifestyle audits for politicians and civil servants.
On Wednesday, several provinces told Parliament’s portfolio committee of the limitations of these audits to determine whether officials are engaged in corrupt practices.
Premiers and the directors general of five provinces have also told Parliament that civil servants are reluctant to provide their financial information, citing personal information protection laws.
Mandatory since April 2022, lifestyle audits in the provinces are meant to root out corruption, particularly in tenders and contracts.
But several provinces have highlighted the problems with demanding that public servants provide them with three years’ worth of bank statements or those of their spouses and other immediate family members.
Still, officials said this information doesn’t go far enough in determining impropriety.
But the acting Director General of Public Service and Administration, Willie Vukela, said amendments to the lifestyle audit guidelines are in the pipeline.
“We are going to develop a tool with the State Security Agency and the Special Investigating Unit because by law, you must go through security clearance even before appointment. When officials go through the clearance, we will build in the lifestyle audit tool. It moves parallel.”
He said attempts will also be made to access funds from the Criminal Assets Recovery Account to help with lifestyle audits, particularly in high-risk departments which include health, the police, education and public works.
Vukela said discussions are also underway with the Auditor General to include the lifestyle assessments in its annual audits of departments.
Committee chairperson Jan de Villiers said he’s satisfied with the progress the provinces are making so far in carrying out the audits, despite the capacity constraints and financial challenges.
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