Pretoria - A stern warning has been sent out to officials in the Gauteng provincial government who are involved in corruption and those who might even be thinking about it.
The province's Finance MEC, Mandla Nkomfe, has vowed not to allow corrupt officials to tarnish the reputation of the public sector, saying their days were numbered.
"Guided by our 2009 Anti-Corruption Strategic Framework, we want to protect the resources and public image of the provincial government," Nkomfe said during his quarterly media briefing on Monday.
However, he did not name and shame the corrupt officials and service providers.
Since the new provincial administration adopted a zero tolerance approach to corruption, the lid has been blown off scores of corruption cases.
In the Finance Department, a practitioner was arrested and dismissed for fraudulent use of the provincial government employees' personal details to obtain loans, credit cards and mortgage bonds.
A human resource team leader was arrested and dismissed for appointing ghost teachers, whose salaries were paid to his syndicate.
In the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, a finance official was dismissed for making deliberate duplicate payments to a service provider.
In the Health and Social Development Department, Nkomfe said an official was dismissed and criminally charged for making fraudulent payments.
He said the provincial government was engaged in a process of strengthening internal controls in all spheres of the provincial government to detect and prevent fraud and corruption.
"The broader plan is to achieve operational efficiency, improve financial reporting and ensure compliance with the applicable legislation," Nkomfe said.
Measures are being taken to tighten procurement procedures and enhance transparency in tender awarding processes. Early detection systems are also being put in place to deal with cases of fronting.
"All of these efforts show that this government is fully committed to fighting corruption and enhance management of resources in order to accelerate the delivery of quality services to the public," said Nkomfe.
He said his department was working with the Office of the Premier and the Department of Health and Social Development to put in place systems that would ensure that departments spend in line with their allocated budgets and projections.
The MEC also announced that more anti-corruption strategies would be developed at the upcoming Gauteng Anti-Corruption Summit to be held on Wednesday.
"At this summit, we will develop a common plan of action and social mobilisation against corruption involving government, labour, business and other civil society sectors," he said.
