Chairperson, Minister, and hon members, President Zuma in his state of the nation address stated that:
The Public Service has to respond to the call to make this term one of faster action and improved state performance. We require excellence and hard work. We need public servants who are dedicated, capable and who care for the needs of citizens.
The President promised that government was already working on the development and implementation of a Public Service programme which will set norms and standards for public servants in all spheres of government. He also assured the House that government was continuing its efforts to eradicate corruption and fraud in procurement and tender processes; and with applications for driving licences, social grants and identity documents, among other things. Government has its hands full to try and reform the Public Service. The Minister must implement the programme to meet the presidential imperatives and, of course, report on the achievement thereof.
The nation is affected by how the Public Service works. Therefore, the nation must be kept in the loop. The President also promised that the Interministerial Committee on Corruption was looking at decisive ways to defeat corruption. According to what has been reported, we all need to ask the department this question: Is the department ready to lead in eradicating corruption committed by public servants? Perhaps it is now time that the committee referred to by the President give a regular report to the House on what action and cases the state agency are dealing with.
According to the Public Service Commission, it is estimated that between 45% and 72% of all senior managers in the Public Service are involved in directorships and partnerships. Troye Lund calls this government the "entrepreneur dynasty". It is certainly a time of large-scale conflicts of interest. According to The Economist, 6 000 senior government officials had failed to declare their business interests, as required by law, and we are awaiting disciplinary hearings. The Auditor-General is alarmed by what is going on: He reported that R600 million went into the pockets of Public Service officials and/or their associates. This is a crisis of enormous magnitude.
The Economist also cites Willie Hofmeyr's estimate of 400 000 civil servants getting welfare payments to which they are not entitled. To make matters worse, Willie Hofmeyr asserts that "the state's ability to convict and punish the guilty was pretty limited and, in some cases, almost nonexistent". Suspended officials routinely remain on pay for months, if not years, without anything happening in spite of the rules that are there in terms of the Public Service. The President himself expressed enormous frustration regarding this.
We are fully united in fighting this scourge of corruption in government. To government's credit, it is at the forefront in admitting this. Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, for example, has openly acknowledged that corruption was "far worse than anyone imagines ... at all levels of government". Government must therefore implement a decisive programme of prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution to bring corruption under control. The starting point of solving any problem, as the Minister and government have done, is to accept the nature and magnitude of the problem. The billion dollar question is: What would be done about it after having acknowledged it?
The Public Service Handbook, which is readily available to government, declares that the employer must hold a disciplinary hearing within 60 days. Government does not adhere to its own code in dealing with managers and officials. Why is it so, Minister? There is another aspect of great concern to us in Cope: Who is in charge of the Public Service? It seems to us that the Minister is buffeted by his ministerial colleagues, too eager to appoint who they like to top positions in their departments. In the United Kingdom experienced managers remain in their positions to allow for continuity, maintaining high levels of state professionalism and delivery. With the present government new Ministers are overly hasty in wanting to be rid of incumbents in order to appoint what I call their friends. How can the Minister be pushed around in this way by his ministerial colleagues? This department is a custodian of the public servants. Minister, you alone must determine and enforce compliance on the part of your colleagues. That is one of your line functions.
The suspension of many directors-general and deputy directors-general after the election seems to be the ANC's strategy for firing senior officials to make room for friends. The Department for the Public Service and Administration should have intervened and stopped those who were wielding the axe from cutting off heads. The Minister must see to it that procedures and good practice be applied. What happened to Xoliswa Sibeko is a bad example. The Minister disregarded the finding that she was not guilty and by putting her on special leave, the Minister illegally enforced the suspension. This is intolerable. Similarly, in the Western Cape when Thami Manyati was cleared, the premier invalidated the findings. This is called the double jeopardy. How can this be allowed when the department is there as the custodian of good practice? To make matters worse, while Sibeko was waiting to be called back, her post was advertised without any prior negotiations.
On the issue of the Public Service Commission, we all agreed in the committee that it must be independent and protected. We have a duty to do that. [Laughter.] We can no longer have a backlog on the service delivery agenda. Citizens are experiencing dissatisfaction with the quality and space of service delivery. The time for promises has come to an end. It is now time for action and for delivering services to our people. I thank you. [Applause.]