2021-w2699 - 16 December 2021

• 1. The conducting and/or roll out of lifestyle audits are, in terms of regulation 22 of the Public Service Regulations, 2016, the responsibility of departments. Within departments, ethics officers and investigators are required to perform the required stages of lifestyle audits (lifestyle review and lifestyle investigation). In terms of the Public Service Regulations, 2016, departments have to designate Ethics Officers to manage ethics, and in terms of the Minimum Anti-Corruption Requirements, departments have to investigators and a dedicated anti-corruption capacity. This is not a new requirement, so departments do have an established ethics management and anti-corruption capacity.

The Public Administration Ethics, Integrity and Disciplinary Technical Assistance Unit (PAEIDTAU), in terms of Section 15 of the Public Administration Management Act, 2014, has the function to monitor the implementation of lifestyle audits. This Unit does not have an investigative mandate, so it will not conduct lifestyle audits.

Lifestyle audits became compulsory from 1 April 2021. To assist departments, the PDSA adopted a Guide on implementing lifestyle audits and started with awareness raising and the training of ethics officers.

Lifestyle audits could commence after Senior Management Members disclosed their financial interests in April (every year) on the eDisclosure system, and when the other designated categories did the same in June and July (of every year). The lifestyle audit process is dependent on the disclosure of financial interests on the eDisclosure system.

• 1. The PAEIDTAU is not aware whether any Public Service employees have been subjected to lifestyle audits. Departments have until the end of March 2022 to conduct lifestyle audits for the current financial year.

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The number of employees subjected to lifestyle audits and the outcomes of the process will only be known at the end of January 2022. In a Circular dated 25 October 2021 addressed to all departments and government components, departments were requested to provide feedback on their progress regarding the implementation of the Guide to the PAEIDTAU, by the end of January 2022.