President Cyril Ramaphosa says the government is stepping up efforts to prevent abuse of state funds meant for the poor by public representatives.
This after parliament learnt that thousands of public servants have been illegally receiving social grants and the R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant monthly in a bid to top up their salaries.
The president said there was still a long way to go in rooting out corruption, preventing this kind of abuse and instilling a culture of ethics in the public service. Ramaphosa said the unit would also refer corruption cases to government’s Anti-Corruption Task Team and follow up with departments to ensure criminal cases involving public servants were made disciplinary cases. In collaboration with the multi-agency Fusion Centre, the unit was also expected to assist with identifying employees in priority cases investigated by law enforcement authorities.