Public Service and Administration Acting Minister, Mr Thulas Nxesi says his department does not have mandate to perform lifestyle audits for members of Cabinet.
In his reply to written Parliamentary questions, Minister Nxesi said: “the Department of Public Service and Administration does not have a mandate to perform lifestyle audits for members of Cabinet. This is the mandate of the Presidency. In March 2022, the Presidency responded to this question in Parliamentary [Question 702].”
According to the Minister, The Presidency response was as follows: “The introduction of lifestyle audits for Members of the Executive has taken far longer than originally anticipated. “While we have begun with lifestyle audits for senior public servants, it is important that we extend this practice to Members of the Executive.
“Much work has been done on the approach and methodology to lifestyle audits of Members of the Executive. However, the finalisation of this work is being held in abeyance pending the submission of the final report of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture. “This is so that any additional measures required to strengthen Executive accountability and conduct can be considered holistically.”
Regarding the question on the number of Cuban engineers, nurses and Doctors working in the country, Mr Nxesi said that information extracted from PERSAL as at 30 April 2022, the total number of Cuban teachers, engineers, nurses and doctors currently employed in the Republic and the total cost of their employment are as follows:
Engineers: 65 and total cost to employment is R50 394 855; while the number of Cuban Doctors in the country is 229 with the total cost of their employment standing at R257 917 774.
The Minister said that the National Framework Towards Professionalisation of the Public Sector has not been approved by the Cabinet.
On senior officials without requisite qualifications, Minister Nxesi said: “the National Framework take cognisance of the fact that there are senior officials who do not have the requisite qualifications and the National Framework makes the following proposals to address this that the National School of Government (NSG) will collaborate with Professional Bodies and Higher Education Institutions to professionalise the public service.
“The NSG has already put systems in place to ensure the realisation of this proposal in the following manner: For existing public servants –
“The NSG is working with the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations for accreditation and registration of qualifications on the Occupational Qualification Sub-Framework from NQF Level 5-8, with the aim of professionalising the public sector (National, Provincial, Local government and Public Enterprises).
“These will form part of the compulsory suit of qualifications that the NSG will roll out in the public sector. This will replace the non-credit bearing senior management programmes that the NSG is currently offering.
“It will also assist the NSG to apply the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) Policy to recognise the knowledge and experience acquired by public servants who enrolled and completed these programmes previously through formal, informal and non- formal learning.”
