BuaNews (Tshwane)
Karen Pretorius
12 June 2003
Pretoria — Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi says government has identified 60 percent of corruption cases in the public service on its own efforts.
The minister was addressing the National Assembly yesterday during her department's budget vote.
'Fighting corruption is an important priority for government. If we are to sustain social change, we need honesty and integrity in the public service,' the minister said.
She said there were a number of proposals on the table to curb corruption, including the establishment of a single national hotline for reporting cases of corruption.
'Training public officials on how to combat corruption is also receiving attention. Nearly 100 senior investigators and prosecutors recently attended workshops on new tools and techniques for fighting corruption,' Minister Fraser-Moleketi said.
The minister said they were working to address the problem at a hands-on level, adding that the Public Service Commission continued to undertake investigations into specific cases of corruption.
'In the Eastern Cape, the Interim Management Team (IMT) and the Joint Anti-Corruption Task team are working to address specific cases and a number of people implicated have already been charged and appeared in court,' Minister Fraser-Moleketi announced.
Government established the IMT in January, to rid the Eastern Cape of corruption and a number of alleged corrupt officials have since been nabbed.
She told the National Assembly that her department was also considering proposals for the creation of a permanent anti-corruption capacity in the Eastern Cape.
The minister said a special court dealing with corruption had been set up in Mdantsane and a second one would be set up in Umtata to speed up the prosecution of corruption cases and serve as a deterrent.
Minister Fraser-Moleketi said her department had also identified the need to increase awareness and provide more public education on how to fight corruption.
'In the coming year we will be communicating a clearer message about what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable behaviour by public servants so that we can minimize the negative effects of corruption on service delivery.' -
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