Pretoria - Greater care must be taken to decrease the risk of corrupt practices in the awarding 2010 FIFA World Cup tenders, says the Public Service Commission (PSC).
Realising the commission's annual State of the Public Service Report on Tuesday, Commissioner Dr Ralph Mgijima said the public service was at the centre of preparations for the tournament and therefore government needed to be extremely vigilant.
"There is a large flow of resources and abundance of business opportunities during this time, the risk of corrupt practices tends to increase," he said.
However, he said the vigilance should not be limited to public servants only but also the private sector as research has shown that employees of private sector companies are among those who solicit and accept bribes from companies and government.
In the report, used to assess the performance of government departments and public servants on an annual basis, found that financial disclosures by government officials for the 2007/08 financial year dropped compared to the previous year.
"Lack of full compliance may put departments which are involved in big programmes and tenders at risk regarding potential corrupt practices," read the report.
It also noted that effectiveness and better management of public funds was imperative given the resource constraints that the country expected to face as results of the global economic meltdown.
"Apart from its primary responsibility of service delivery to the public, government will have to meet additional service demands that will be associated with the hosting of the World Cup," the report stated.
While commission was satisfied by the state of the state of readiness of the South African Police Service (SAPS) to host the world cup, it found that at some police stations there was lack of awareness regarding the details of the National Safety Plan and the implementation thereof.
However, it was not all doom and gloom, as the report noted some encouraging signs that suggested government was giving attention to some of the gaps that undermine the ability of the public service to carry out its mandate.
"Moving forward, it is going to be necessary to focus on the areas of staffing, training and refinement of applicable systems and procedures to ensure readiness for 2010 and beyond".
The report recommended that the country take advantage of the 2010 material benefits to ensure development beyond the soccer showpiece.
