Govt to spend R4.5bn to pay civil servants for sitting at home

The government is on course to spend R4.5 billion in just two years remunerating public service employees who are currently on suspension with full pay and benefits pending the finalisation of their disciplinary cases.

This was revealed by the Minister of Public Service and Administration Senzo Mchunu to a written parliamentary reply to a question posed by Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Dr Mimmy Gondwe, asking about the number of government employees who are currently on suspension with pay.

“After spending R2.4 billion in the 2019/2020 financial year, the South African taxpayer will fork out another R2.1 billion to pay suspended public service employees in 2020/21,” Gondwe said in a statement on Friday.

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Gondwe said Mchunu’s reply also revealed that some employees have been on suspension, with full pay and benefits, for a period of 21 months. She said it should not take longer than three months to resolve a case of a suspended public service employee as per the Public Service Act and its regulations.

The DA called on the department of public service and administration to consider placing a cap on the amount of time it takes government departments to resolve disciplinary cases of suspended workers.

“Taxpayers should not be expected to subsidise a flawed, and expensive, administrative system that adds no value to service delivery,” Gondwe said.

“Public service employees are all bound by a code of conduct in the exercise of their professional responsibilities. As such any willful violation of the Act and its regulations should not become a financial burden on the taxpayer as is the case in this particular instance. This speaks to the flawed nature of government’s current system on ‘suspension with full pay and benefits’ which requires to be amended as a matter of urgency.”

Some of the reasons given for the suspension of public service employees included:

• Sexual harassment;
• Possession of a firearm or dangerous weapon on state premises;
• Under the influence of habit-forming/stupefying drugs;
• Stealing, bribery and fraud;
• Possession or wrongful use of state property; and
• Willful or negligent mismanagement of finances.

Gondwe said the timely resolution of disciplinary cases in the public service should be included as a key performance area for director generals and heads of government departments in order to avert protracted disciplinary processes.

“Therefore, the DA also calls on the Public Service Commission to urgently launch an investigation into the delays in finalising the identified disciplinary cases by the implicated government departments,” she said.

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