Special Investigating Unit (SIU)

The Public Service Commission verifies financial disclosures and identifies conflicts of interest, which are then referred to line ministries; ethics officers within line ministries conduct lifestyle reviews and verify disclosures below the Senior Management Service (SMS); the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) proposes to lead lifestyle audits for all public entities, or this function is performed by external contractors; any findings from that process are referred either to SAPS or the Hawks for criminal investigation or to the individual line ministry for disciplinary action.

“The Public Service Commission verifies financial disclosures and identifies conflicts of interest, which are then referred to line ministries. Ethics officers within line ministries conduct lifestyle reviews and verify disclosures below the SMS. The SIU proposes to lead lifestyle audits for all public entities, or this function is performed by external contractors. And any findings coming out of that are then referred either to SAPS or the Hawks for the criminal investigation or to the individual line ministry for disciplinary action.”

Currently, within the Public Service Commission, they verify the SMS financial disclosures; the SIU proposes to reach a point where there is a blanket proclamation allowing them to conduct lifestyle audits across the public sector, bypassing current arrangements of seconding officials to individual ministries to conduct audits.

“So currently within the Public Service Commission, they will verify the SMS, the financial disclosures. The proposal from the SIU... is that they would want to reach a point where there is a blanket proclamation that allows them to conduct lifestyle audits across the public sector, and that would then get around this current complexity around seconding officials to individual ministries to conduct these audits for them.”

Under secondment arrangements, SIU officials effectively function as members of the department rather than as SIU officials.

“under these secondment arrangements, effectively they function as if they were a member of that department rather than an SIU official.”