The Public Service Commissioner in the Free State, Henk Boshoff, tells OFM News, this is nothing new for the province, as the disclosure rate has stood at 100% since 2015.  

The Public Service Regulations of 2016 requires senior management service (SMS) members and department heads to disclose their financial interests to the relevant executive authorities annually, come end of April. These authorities are the respective members of the executive council (MECs) and/or the Premier of the province. Boshoff explains that they in turn forward the submissions to the Public Servants Commission for analysis before 31 May each year.

Boshoff and company scrutinise the disclosures and revert back to the provincial leadership, should they pick up any actual conflicts of interest, as they did over the 2019/20 financial year. According to Boshoff, they picked up seven instances of conflicts of interest, across six provincial departments. They then forwarded their findings to the executive for further investigation. “In terms of the public service legislation, no public servant is allowed to do business with the state,” cautions the Provincial Commissioner. Once this is uncovered, “it is regarded as an offence and should be dealt with in terms of the relevant disciplinary processes”.

Boshoff also revealed the disclosure rate for the Northern Cape, due to the absence of a Commissioner in the province at present. He says only one senior government official at management level in the province did not disclose his/her financial interests to the provincial executive ahead of the 30 April deadline. This left the Northern Cape with a 99,5% disclosure rate. Boshoff has also weighed in on the Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu’s concern at the high number of public servants who fail to disclose their interest and conduct business with the state. 

Boshoff says he believes Mchunu was referring to national departments, which have a very low disclosure rate.

OFM News