• There are more than 1 500 public servants possibly doing business with government.
• Three departments have joined forces to probe all the possible cases.
• The Department of Public Service and Administration revealed this to Parliament on Wednesday.

Three government departments are probing 1 539 identified public servants allegedly doing business with the state and have so far zoomed in on 10 priority cases.

The police, justice and correctional services and public service and administration (DPSA) ministers agreed to establish a multi-departmental team.

The team would be coordinated by the directors-general (DGs) of the respective departments and tasked with ensuring allegations of public servants conducting business with government be investigated.

On Wednesday, DPSA officials briefed Parliament’s portfolio committee on public service and administration on measures taken to prevent public servants' business dealings with the state.

Salomon Hoogenraad-Vermaak, a director at DPSA, said those found to be guilty would be prosecuted.

Hoogenraad-Vermaak said the DGs met in August and approved a memorandum of understanding.

"[It] clearly highlights the roles and responsibilities of each department in the multi-departmental team. This was accompanied by a multi-disciplinary plan of action, focusing on 10 priority cases and on dealing with the list of 1 539 public service employees identified to be possibly conducting business with the state.

"On 28 August, the DPSA and SAPS trained the ethics officers of all the implicated departments, for them to be able to assess allegations, to collect sufficient evidence and to draft affidavits where transgression of the prohibition was detected and to institute disciplinary steps where necessary.

"The DPSA (with the assistance of National Treasury) will continue to, on a monthly basis, identify employees possibly conducting business with the state. Confirmed cases will be handed to SAPS and through the monitoring and evaluation committee progress will be tracked and challenges will be unblocked," he said.

The Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission (CIPC) was also assisting the DPSA to identify public servants doing business with the state.

CIPC commissioner Rory Voller said a "triangular relationship" between the CIPC, National Treasury and the South African Revenue Service existed with regards to access to company data.

"[The] CIPC assists in three ways, namely, proactive interventions through a partnership with DPSA, improving transparency through a collaboration with National Treasury and lastly through cooperation with law enforcement entities and oversight bodies by providing requested data on an ad hoc basis," Voller said.

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