A GRAHAMSTOWN High Court judge has ordered Eastern Cape Housing MEC Thokozile Xasa to produce paperwork relating to 583 Bhisho officials accused of housing subsidy fraud.
Justice Clive Plasket ordered that the Rhodes University-based Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) be given detailed documentation by the Housing Department on the corrective steps taken against the officials implicated in the fraud more than two years ago.
The documents include the number of prosecutions, convictions and acquittals; civil proceedings to recover the money; internal disciplinary steps against guilty officials; and copies of the employment contract and performance agreement of the department’s HoD (head of department) and superintendent-general.
Using the Promotion of Access to Information Act, PSAM’s six-month legal fight to access the documentation would shed further light on damning testimony heard in 2006 by the Bhisho-appointed Pillay Commission of Inquiry. The commission considered the impact of such housing fraud on public funds meant to benefit the poor and needy people of the province.
A national performance audit by the auditor-general (A-G) dated January 2006 revealed irregularities in housing subsidy applications approved to government employees earning salaries in excess of the housing subsidy threshold.
The A-G estimated the monetary value of such irregular approvals to be in the region of R93million across all nine provinces.
The A-G noted that the potential amount in subsidies awarded incorrectly was calculated on an average subsidy of R15000 per applicant. Using this average, the 583 public officials implicated in the Eastern Cape may have conservatively benefited to the tune of R8745000.
A “pleased” Jay Kruuse, PSAM’s programme head, yesterday said last Thursday’s court order would enable the watchdog group to obtain information and records “which will reveal the extent to which public officials have been held accountable for their actions – particularly where such actions involve the misuse and abuse of public funds entrusted to them”. “The court order will also provide authority to support the PSAM gaining access to the performance agreements of all provincial HoDs and superintendent-generals,” he said.
Although the PSAM was given an 83-page bundle of documents by the department minutes before the court appearance, they decided to continue with the application.
“We did not want to go through the whole legal process again – especially if the documentation was not what was requested. It is indeed regrettable that the PSAM should have had to litigate for material of this nature,” he said.
Department spokesperson Phumulani Mdolomba yesterday said the department had co-operated by not opposing the PSAM application, and had sent the information “as requested”.
He said no disciplinary action had been taken yet against the officials as they were still trying to recover the debt.
“The Eastern Cape has investigated all the cases and referred some to the Special Investigations Unit and South African Police Service. We have already got some convictions,” he said. - Daily Dispatch
Justice Clive Plasket ordered that the Rhodes University-based Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) be given detailed documentation by the Housing Department on the corrective steps taken against the officials implicated in the fraud more than two years ago.
The documents include the number of prosecutions, convictions and acquittals; civil proceedings to recover the money; internal disciplinary steps against guilty officials; and copies of the employment contract and performance agreement of the department’s HoD (head of department) and superintendent-general.
Using the Promotion of Access to Information Act, PSAM’s six-month legal fight to access the documentation would shed further light on damning testimony heard in 2006 by the Bhisho-appointed Pillay Commission of Inquiry. The commission considered the impact of such housing fraud on public funds meant to benefit the poor and needy people of the province.
A national performance audit by the auditor-general (A-G) dated January 2006 revealed irregularities in housing subsidy applications approved to government employees earning salaries in excess of the housing subsidy threshold.
The A-G estimated the monetary value of such irregular approvals to be in the region of R93million across all nine provinces.
The A-G noted that the potential amount in subsidies awarded incorrectly was calculated on an average subsidy of R15000 per applicant. Using this average, the 583 public officials implicated in the Eastern Cape may have conservatively benefited to the tune of R8745000.
A “pleased” Jay Kruuse, PSAM’s programme head, yesterday said last Thursday’s court order would enable the watchdog group to obtain information and records “which will reveal the extent to which public officials have been held accountable for their actions – particularly where such actions involve the misuse and abuse of public funds entrusted to them”. “The court order will also provide authority to support the PSAM gaining access to the performance agreements of all provincial HoDs and superintendent-generals,” he said.
Although the PSAM was given an 83-page bundle of documents by the department minutes before the court appearance, they decided to continue with the application.
“We did not want to go through the whole legal process again – especially if the documentation was not what was requested. It is indeed regrettable that the PSAM should have had to litigate for material of this nature,” he said.
Department spokesperson Phumulani Mdolomba yesterday said the department had co-operated by not opposing the PSAM application, and had sent the information “as requested”.
He said no disciplinary action had been taken yet against the officials as they were still trying to recover the debt.
“The Eastern Cape has investigated all the cases and referred some to the Special Investigations Unit and South African Police Service. We have already got some convictions,” he said. - Daily Dispatch
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