The Director General of the Department of Military Veterans Ms. Irene Mpolweni has placed four senior managers of the Department on precautionary suspension exercising her authority as accounting officer of the Department to implement consequence management as required by the Public Service Commission.

The suspended officials have also been informed that the Department will appoint service providers to commence with the investigations. The service provider will also be appointed “to attend to the implementation of the findings and recommendations of the investigation.”

In dealing with this matter expeditiously and efficiently the Department intends to adhere strictly to the prescribed sixty-day period (60 days) to bring the investigations to finality.

In line with the requirements of consequence management the office of the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Hon. T. Modise and her Deputy Hon. Thabang Makwetla have also been appraised of the decision of the Director General to place these senior managers on precautionary suspension pending the outcome of the investigations.

The decision of the Director General to place these senior managers under precautionary suspension is also intended to respond to the demands of consequence management as required by the Public Service Commission.

On the 5th of July 2021, the Public Service Commission wrote to the then Acting Director General Lt. Gen. Mgwebi (Ret) requesting him to provide/submit information on consequence management in respect of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure by the department.

The Public Service Commission draws the attention of the department to the fact that in the Annual Report for the financial year 2019 / 2020 the Commission noted that the Department reported irregular expenditure amounting to R119 002 000.00, fruitless and wasteful expenditure to the tune of R5 084 000.

The Public Service Commission also makes the point that reports on financial misconduct submitted by the Department for the year 2019/2020 financial year to the PSC “does not reflect whether consequence management (disciplinary action) was /or will be imposed against the perpetrators that committed irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

In conclusion the Public Service Commission and the Director General of the Department of Military Veterans agreed to collaborate to overcome the challenges facing the Department.

Source: Government of South Africa