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The Democratic Alliance (DA) is in the process of implementing a series of initiatives in the Western Cape which seek to better regulate the conduct of public servants, and we will also be making submissions to the Department of Public Service and Administration with a formal request that these initiatives be reflected in national legislation.

These amendments are important to ensure a functional legal and ethical climate in the public service. The DA believes that the implementation of these amendments will prevent continued corruption becoming business as usual and ensure that corrupt public servants are held to account.

The amendments as put forward by the DA, aim to:

Stop public servants who face disciplinary action from being re-employed ("transferred") somewhere else in the public service, thereby avoiding disciplinary action
Stop certain categories of public officials from carrying out private remunerative work, especially where there is any potential for a conflict of interest.
Ensure that public servants are not entitled to receive gifts from outside parties as part of their official duties under any circumstances.
Stop tender abuse, with the proper enforcement of a list of defaulters.
Restructure provisions for car allowances to stop public servants with poor credit records from being able to use the Treasury as a personal bank to obtain car loans.
Stop the abuse of special leave for sporting events. Currently there is no limit on special leave for a wide range of sporting events, an arrangement which is wide open to abuse.
Prevent any public servant from being able to work as a councillor at the same time. (This will require current legislation on political participation to be amended)
Stop automatic payouts to public servants on resignation.

The efficacy of the public service is consistently undermined by endemic corruption and abuse of lax rules. This hampers service delivery and wastes hundreds of millions of rand of public money.

In light of the overwhelming evidence of breaches in the Public Service Code of Conduct by Senior Managers, as reported by the Public Service Commission, and continued corruption and blatant disregard for reporting measures that have been put in place, the Democratic Alliance (DA) requests that the Department of Public Service Administration implement, as a matter of urgency, amendments to the Public Service Handbook as proposed by the DA.