Madam Deputy Speaker, firstly, I want to congratulate hon Ramatlakane on his maiden speech and I want to thank hon Dreyer for ensuring that this motion is placed on the Order Paper, notwithstanding the fact that the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Scopa, has not completed their report. But, as you said, hon Dreyer, Minister Baloyi on some occasion said that the more people lift their hands, the more people raise their voices and the more people create awareness against this scourge of corruption, the better. And I am glad that this matter is being discussed in this House this afternoon.
The government departments and employees are funded by taxpayers and they should, therefore, have the best interests of the South African public at heart. I would go so far as to say that they should be examples in ethical business practices. The reality, however, could not be more different. Corruption and nepotism are words that are synonymous with the way that some of the national departments conduct their business practices, with dishonesty and fraudulent behaviour rife amongst some employees.
The sad fact of the matter is that not all government employees are corrupt, but because of the actions of some of their colleagues they are deemed to be corrupt by association.
This behaviour not only affects the performance of the national departments and their ability to fulfil their mandates, but it also contributes to the negativity surrounding national departments and government employees, and entrenches a culture of corruption within government.
Hon members and hon Deputy Speaker, these actions must be stopped and anybody found guilty of unethical business practices must be dealt with, regardless of who they know or who they are related to. Corrupt behaviour must not be tolerated and this culture of dishonesty which seems to be entrenched in some of our national departments must be weeded out.
The senior officials in national departments must lead by example and realise that they are dealing with our money. The starting point in ridding departments of corrupt behaviour, is to make examples of senior officials found guilty of unethical behaviour and not let them get away. We cannot expect the employees to be models of honesty when their supervisors are corrupt. To this end, we would like to propose a name and shame approach because if any official is caught putting his hands in the cookie jar and fingers in the till, then he or she must be named. The reason we are saying this is that during our hearings we discovered that there were officials who were moving from department to department, and some from the national department to provinces. They were accused of unethical behaviour in some departments, but they were employed by other departments down the line. So, if there is a database of these employees, then everybody will be extra careful.
But, as I said yesterday, the responsibility lies with the executing authority, and that is the Ministers. The Ministers have to see to it that the directors-general ensure that senior managers adhere to simple things like disclosure of financial interests.
And also, Madam Deputy Speaker, to hon members of this House, it is the time of the year when annual reports are going to be tabled by all departments. Some questions must be asked as a matter of course when annual reports are being dealt with: Had all senior managers declared their financial interest; does any senior manager in your department have interests in any business and has that been declared?
Lastly, we would like to propose - and there has been news about this - a moratorium on all senior officials of government departments when they resign or leave the department to join the private sector with regard to getting tenders from the departments in which they were working. We must put an end to this and maybe there should be a grace period of one year or so, when they can't involve themselves in the private sector so that they benefit from tenders. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]