{"id":854901,"date":"2026-03-26T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=854901"},"modified":"2026-03-25T17:09:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:09:27","slug":"government-going-after-bank-statements-and-financial-records-in-south-africa-as-officials-dodge-lifestyle-audits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/854901\/government-going-after-bank-statements-and-financial-records-in-south-africa-as-officials-dodge-lifestyle-audits\/","title":{"rendered":"Lifestyle audits going after government officials’ bank statements in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has advised the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) to include three-year bank statements and financial records when conducting lifestyle audits of government officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes after the department’s audits over the past two years flagged cases of officials exploiting loopholes to avoid the process, or cases being dropped and not pursued further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include cases where audits were ended by various departments after officials left one department to join another, evading the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other cases, even when officials were flagged for living beyond their legal means, deeper investigations weren’t pursued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were some of the red flags raised by the DPSA in its recent monitoring report on the lifestyle audits conducted between January 2024 and December 2025 in the public sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its report, the DPSA recorded higher compliance rates as the commitment to conducting lifestyle audits has improved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By January 2025, an average of 91% of national and provincial departments were reported to be complying, a significant increase from 61% in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, compliance rates for Senior Management Service (SMS) members were 93% for national departments and 89% for provincial departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The percentage of finalised investigations that led to sanctions for SMS members increased from only 0.7% in 2024 to 44% in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This jump was attributed to enhanced training programmes. For non-SMS staff, 50% of cases in 2024 resulted in employee sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, despite the increased compliance, fewer than 50% of public servants flagged by lifestyle audits are currently under investigation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, 39 SMS members and 54 non-SMS employees were officially suspected of living beyond their legal means, yet no investigations were launched into their finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials dodging audits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A significant issue in consequence management is that departments are ending lifestyle audit investigations when an employee resigns, retires, or passes away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DPSA noted that some employees exploit this loophole by leaving one department and joining another, thereby evading the audit process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DPSA has also officially flagged several departments for failing to provide the required progress reports on their investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes three national departments: Military Veterans, Science and Innovation, and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), along with eight provincial departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To address this issue, the DPSA plans to send non-compliance and “Minister-to-Minister” letters to hold Heads of Departments personally accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SIU, meanwhile, raised a much larger hole in the current audit system: the DPSA’s methodology does not require bank statements or financial records to assess whether an individual is living beyond their means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SIU said that the DPSA guidelines should be amended to require the review of three years’ bank statements<\/strong>, enabling a more precise comparison of income and expenditure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SIU mandates that public servants provide detailed financial documentation, which includes three years of bank statements and records for mortgages, vehicle financing, cryptocurrency accounts, trust accounts, and corporate financials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigators verify this information by cross-referencing it with external databases, such as the CIPC (to identify business directorships), eNaTIS (to track vehicle ownership), and Windeed (for property records).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A crucial aspect of the process involves examining 36 months of financial records to align the employee’s reported income with their actual expenditures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigators specifically look for discrepancies, such as properties or vehicles that have been settled in cash or paid off in unusually brief periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its recent report, the SIU suggested that the DPSA enhance the annual asset declaration form by incorporating indicators of hidden wealth, such as livestock, rural land, trusts, cryptocurrency, and offshore accounts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since lifestyle audits are not officially included in the SIU Act’s responsibilities, the SIU currently conducts them through secondment agreements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unit has requested changes to the SIU Act and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) Act that would allow investigators direct access to bank records, rather than relying on employees to provide them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the SIU proposed that the DPSA implement a “blanket lifestyle audit proclamation” to facilitate more straightforward and consistent investigations in high-risk departments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The SIU wants the Department of Public Service to tap bank records when conducting lifestyle audits, as officials exploit loopholes to avoid detection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":776310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[23366,24602,22680],"class_list":["post-854901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-dpsa","tag-lifestyle-audits","tag-the-special-investigating-unit-siu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854901"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":854935,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854901\/revisions\/854935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}