Chairperson, as I said, the department has developed guidelines which should be persuasive to try and get these disciplinary cases to comply with the 60-day deadline. Unfortunately, we appear to be, at this point in time, captive to the process itself, in that, for a number of reasons these disciplinary cases get prolonged and they are not able to be finalised within the 60-day period. This leads to a kind of situation where I think it is untenable and unacceptable that these cases continue for much longer than 60 days.
It is actually quiet a serious problem and it is a problem that I certainly would want to take up quite strenuously with the Public Service because it does in fact interfere with the operations of the department. When you have a senior official suspended on precautionary suspension, you must understand that the individual cannot be dismissed because a proper process of hearings has to be conducted so that the person is either found guilty or not guilty. If the hearing has not been completed within 60 days, the person is entitled to come back to the department.
We have established guidelines, we are now going to make them persuasive and we will look for additional measures to try and ensure that we comply with the 60-day period. Thank you.