Cape Town - The Department of Water and Sanitation is saddled with a review application it took to the Labour Court four years ago to set aside a not guilty sanction recommended by a disciplinary committee against one of its deputy directors-general.
However, the department has dispensed with an intern and fired a junior official over failure to declare their financial interests.
This emerged during a hearing with the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on the department’s 2020-21 audit outcomes, and investigations conducted by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
The department incurred R641million in unauthorised expenditure, R18billion in irregular expenditure and R223 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure in 2020-21.
Briefing the committee on Wednesday, Minister Senzo Mchunu said the disciplinary proceedings of deputy director-general Zandile Mathe have been dragging on for a long time.
“We try everything to ensure it does not drag any further. There are legal and technical matters we could not cut off. We are merely complying with those,” he said, without elaborating.
Asked why they did not freeze Mathe’s salary in order to force her to provide the department with her new address, director-general Sean Phillips said they still had another major disciplinary case with substantial charges nearing completion against Mathe.
“In the private sector you might stop the salary, but the government is more regulated,” he said. “We don’t want to do anything to jeopardise a successful completion of the case.
“We have to be very careful, follow the rules and regulations governing labour relations agreements and follow the process so that we achieve a successful outcome,” Phillips said.
Meanwhile, an intern’s contract was not renewed and a junior official was dismissed by the Amatola Water Board for not disclosing their financial interests in the procurement of water tankers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The SIU noted that the intern was found to be a director of a company appointed as a service provider to supply water tankers, and the junior official, his sister, was employed in the entity’s supply chain management unit.
Deputy director-general for corporate services and support Nthabiseng Fundakubi told Scopa that the SIU investigation was ongoing.
Five civil litigation referrals were made by the SIU, as well as 18 criminal and two disciplinary referrals. Fundakubi said the two implicated officials had been dismissed.
“One official, a buyer in supply chain management, has been dismissed. The second was an intern.
His internship was not renewed,” Fundakubi said.
Cape Times