President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised that lifestyle audits of his cabinet will take place. While audits were made mandatory by the President in 2021, no fruitful results were showcased, leading to queries on the authenticity of the President’s intentions.
In an interview with VOC News, Angelo Fick, the director of research at the Auwal Socio-economic Research Institute, criticised the president’s statements as lacking substance. He pointed out that the president had previously made promises, including the establishment of key performance indicators for ministers, but has not delivered any results to the public.
“Let’s not forget that Mr. Ramaphosa indicated, right at the beginning of his administration, that he would have performance agreements with ministers, and we haven’t seen those. So, anyone holding their breath that we will see the outcome of these audits, in this environment, is not certain,” said Fick.
Fick states that there is a lack of transparency regarding the thresholds for audits intended to assess whether a public servant is spending more than they earn. He also raises concerns about the effectiveness of lifestyle audits, especially considering that modern accounting techniques can sometimes evade detection during audits.
“It is not clear at this point what the threshold would be to consider that someone’s lifestyle is beyond the income they have as a minister or deputy minister, because we know that with complex and often quite sophisticated financial investment mechanisms. People are able to move money around and invest in ways that they can avoid paying tax on it and avoid auditors. So it’s not clear the depth or strength of the audit,” added Fick.
Listen to the full interview here:
