President Cyril Ramaphosa says despite several delays, lifestyle audits for the President, Deputy President, Ministers and Deputy Ministers are now underway.

The President was participating in the Questions for Oral Reply session held in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

‘After several delays, lifestyle audits of Members of the Executive are underway. This process is being led by the Director-General in the Presidency and Secretary of Cabinet. The President, Deputy President, Ministers and Deputy Ministers are currently in the process of submitting additional information required for these audits.

‘As I have indicated before, the aim of a lifestyle audit is to collect as much information as possible on an individual’s lifestyle to be able to identify when an individual’s expenditure exceeds his or her income. In itself, a lifestyle audit is not conclusive, but may indicate that further investigation is required to establish if there is any wrongdoing,’ he said.

President Ramaphosa explained that the funct
ion of carrying out the audits was moved to the office of the Director-General, Phindile Baleni, owing to cost containment.

‘The Office of the Director-General had to source competent and skilled personnel with experience in conducting lifestyle audits. The capacity building exercise took longer than anticipated which impacted negatively on the timelines for the audits.

‘This is the first time that national government is conducting lifestyle audits of Members of the Executive, requiring new systems, processes and methodologies to be developed.’

He said the Director-General will decide on the most appropriate way to communicate the outcomes of the audits once completed.

Source: South African Government News Agency