The Citizen reports that according to Democratic Alliance (DA) MPL and member of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Tim Brauteseth, government has in effect “openly admitted” that public service integrity and ethics laws that came into effect in 2014 had only been “operationalised” earlier this year.
Yet, a special government unit to ensure ethics, integrity and disciplinary committees, which should have been set up, apparently still do not exist. The Act, signed into law in December 2014, includes specifically laid-out extensive plans to hold officials to account in terms of ethics, integrity and discipline, including prohibitions on doing business with the state. During a recent plenary session of the NCOP, Mchunu reportedly admitted that it was only in April 2019 that Ramaphosa “operationalised” 13 sections of the Act, including section 15 that related to the establishment of a public administration ethics, integrity and disciplinary technical assistance unit. The minister acknowledged that the existence of such a unit could have prevented many of the corrupt activities exposed at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture. Brauteseth said the DA in the NCOP found this state of affairs completely unacceptable. He indicated that the minister had undertaken to meet with the relevant parties on Tuesday.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard on page 4 of The Citizen of 23 October 2019
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