Act on gifts - DA
2009-05-20 14:52
Cape Town - The parliamentary leader of the
Democratic Alliance, Athol Trollip, is using the controversy over the gift
of a R1m car to Transport Minister S'bu Ndebele, to raise
concerns over a report by the Public Service Commission on gifts to civil
servants.
"We call on the new Minister of Public Service to take charge of implementing a better management system for gifts to members of the public service," Trollip said on Wednesday.
The PSC report, Report on the Management of Gifts in the Public
Service, was released in March.
It found that there are "contradictions and
ambiguities" in the current regulatory provisions regarding gifts to public
servants.
One of these is that the Financial Disclosure Framework provides
that senior managers may receive gifts without approval, as long as the
gifts are valued at less than R350, while the Code of Conduct states
that no public servant should accept gifts without approval.
"There are various other laws and regulations with different
prescriptions, leaving a large state of uncertainty over the whole
question," Trollip pointed out.
"Furthermore, there are no provisions for
penalties if any of the various regulations are transgressed."
The report also shows enormous uncertainty among public servants about
gifts.
While almost half were aware of gifts being offered to officials in
their sections, and almost a third said that gift-giving was "commonplace", 44% could not say whether public servants should receive gifts or not.
Only
a third of public servants knew with certainty that their department had a
gift register, although 79% said there was a need for such a policy.
At the same time, more public servants believed that gifts caused
problems for their objectivity and independence (33%) than those who
believed they did not (29%).
"Public servants are paid by the public and serve the public and they
must be obliged to display the highest standards of ethical conduct,"
Trollip said.
"Therefore we hope that the new Minister Richard Baloyi will
act to address these deficiencies, and in the meantime the DA will look into
putting forward a Private Member's Bill to address the problems."