27 January 2009, The NPA’s Tlali Tlali speaks to media at the Randburg Magistrates court on Tuesday. Picture: Shayne Robinson XSR005 27 January 2009, The NPA’s Tlali Tlali speaks to media at the Randburg Magistrates court on Tuesday. Picture: Shayne Robinson XSR005
The board of inquiry into alleged misconduct by national Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele over the R1.7 billion SAPS head office lease is taking baby steps – at a time when the majority of senior managers in the government have either been suspended or are being offered termination packages.
The three-member team met two weeks ago and has received relevant documents. These include the damning Public Protector’s report that found Cele had acted unlawfully and his role in procuring leases amounted to maladministration, and Cele’s response to President Jacob Zuma’s request in August for reasons why he should not be suspended.
Inquiry chairman Judge Jake Moloi told The Sunday Independent that “preparations are under way” and the leader of evidence was dealing with the documents, which were “quite bulky”.
It is understood that the process is in the early stages and that one of the remaining matters is securing a venue in Pretoria.
There are no time frames for the inquiry, announced by Zuma late last month at the same time as the cabinet reshuffle in which then-Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde was sacked for her role in the deal, and former Co-operative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka was sacked for abusing over R1 million of taxpayers’ money.
Justice ministry spokesman Tlali Tlali told The Sunday Independent “there is a common understanding that this matter must be resolved expeditiously as it would be undesirable for a critical department in the criminal justice cluster, such as the police, to be without a permanent head”.
Because directors-general are appointed by the cabinet – and, as the SAPS accounting officer, Cele falls into this level-16 top civil servant band – the power to discipline them lies with the president or a delegated minister.
While the board of inquiry is under way – it must submit its recommendations to the president, who will make a final determination – Cele remains suspended on full pay and benefits which are understood to be between R1 million and R1.5m a year.
He is not the only one in the top senior civil servant ranks who is sitting at home at taxpayers’ expense.
Public Works director-general Siviwe Dongwana, who is reportedly earning a salary package of R1.5m, has been out of the office since December last year, when he was suspended over the police head office lease debacle.
More recently, the Department of Public Works’s acting director-general Sam Vukela was put on special leave pending an internal investigation into possible charges related to the discovery in September of tender irregularities involving R3 billion. Acting director-general Mandla Mabuza is the third to hold the post in a year.
Public service commission information puts the average salary at the top rank of level-16 at R1.2m last year.
However, many directors-general have negotiated their own packages. These range from the R1.5m-a-year (earned by Dongwana) to the lowest, at R976 317, earned by higher education director-general Gwebinkundla Qonde when he was holding the post in an acting capacity earlier this year.
A Sunday newspaper reported in March that government communication and information systems boss Jimmy Manyi earned R1.339m. He was appointed to the government spokesman’s job after being suspended on full pay for several months from the Labour Department’s top post, although those disciplinary proceedings have not been completed.
This week, the Public Service and Administration Ministry expressed concern over the long delays in finalising cases of suspended directors-general which, under the disciplinary code for senior management staff, should be done within 60 days, but which also allows the chairperson to decide on further postponements.
“The (ministry) does acknowledge the effect that long suspensions could have on service delivery,” said ministerial spokesman Dumisani Nkwamba.
He added that, in terms of the Public Service Act, the ministry became involved only if asked to do so by the president or a relevant minister. Or, when a minister recommended the early termination of a director-general’s contract, the Public Service and Administration Minister might also be approached for approval.
Meanwhile, the director-general’s post at the Department of Water Affairs remains vacant after the former incumbent, Pam Yako, was dismissed in August last year after just over a year on suspension with pay following a probe into the irregular expenditure of R1bn.
The agriculture director-general post was filled in September last year, just over a year after Njabulo Nduli was put on special leave.
The correctional services director-general, Xoliswa Sibeko, is another who was put on suspension for approximately one year – over allegations that she rented accommodation for senior executives at “exorbitant cost” to the taxpayer. In a settlement, she received R700 000 and departed in July last year.
That settlement came from taxpayers’ pockets – like the November 2009 settlement of R7.5m for former prosecutions boss Vusi Pikoli, who challenged his dismissal which was officially ascribed to a breakdown in relations with his justice minister boss, but was widely believed to be linked to his decision to charge then police boss, Jackie Selebi.
Selebi, who went on trial for corruption in February 2008, was suspended a month earlier and paid his estimated R1.5m salary until his contract ran out in July 2009.
In November last year, the Public Service Commission (PSC) published a fact sheet on the high turnover of heads of department, like directors-general, around the April 2009 election period.
By that July, five heads of department, or directors-general, had been suspended and by November, three remained on suspension.
At the time, the PSC expressed concern not only about the high turnover as contracts were not renewed or directors-general resigned, but also about the lengthy periods for which acting staff were filling top posts.
Concerns that disciplinary hearings were routinely not finalised speedily and that sanctions for officials found guilty of corrupt behaviour were often too lenient – frequently, a final or written warning – without the case being referred to the police for criminal prosecution, also emerged in the PSC’s report, entitled “Profiling and Analysis of the most Common Manifestations of Corruption and its Related Risks in the Public Service”. - Sunday Independent