Financial misconduct in the 2006/7 financial year has cost the country over R130-million, the Public Service Commission (PSC) announced on Thursday.

At a briefing held in Pretoria, the commission said that financial misconduct within national and provincial departments had risen from last year's 771 cases reported by national and provincial departments to 1042 cases.

The total loss stood at R130 615 994.82.

National departments accounted for 370 cases while provincial departments reported 672 cases.

Departments reported several types of financial misconduct committed by workers and described this misconduct as "any material losses through criminal conduct, unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure".

Fraud comprised 59 percent of overall cases reported, while theft came in second at 13.1 percent.

83% of employees found guilty

The overview showed that employees in the six and seven salary levels committed the highest number of misconduct.

Eighty-three percent of employees were found guilty of misconduct in the 2006/2007 year.

Professor Stan Sangweni said that the report was only released on Thursday morning and that the PSC was yet to engage the 35 national departments as well as 107 provincial departments.

In its report on the indebtedness of public servants, the PSC found that 4071 employees made payments to micro-lenders while 79 360 employees made garnishee related payments.

Garnishee payments were made when an employee was unable or faulted on payments to debtors.

According to the PSC's commissioner Koko Mashigo there were R1.2-million public services employees in the country.

Keep up with levels of indebtedness

The PSC stressed that the information provided to it was on an anonymous basis and no names nor identity numbers of people were revealed.

The commission said that information provided to it by the Personnel and Salary Administration System (PERSAL) showed that workers in the 40 to 49-year-old age bracket paid R6.6-million to micro-lenders.

Sangweni recommended that information held by departments be continuously audited and that ethical frameworks be promoted. The PSC also said that departments should keep up with levels of indebtedness by monitoring records of micro-lending and garnishee orders issued.

Sapa