{"id":855887,"date":"2026-04-06T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=855887"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:53:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:53:33","slug":"huge-problems-for-lifestyle-audits-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/855887\/huge-problems-for-lifestyle-audits-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge problems for lifestyle audits in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration has highlighted the challenges of doing lifestyle audits of government employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the heightened levels of corruption in South Africa, lifestyle audits are seen as a valuable way of seeing how political and state employees live. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lifestyle audits are forensic investigations that compare an individual\u2019s known income to their actual standard of living and can highlight corruption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government officials have repeatedly called for the use of lifestyle audits to highlight corruption. Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube<\/a>,\u00a0recently called for lifestyle audits on her department. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration said that these audits have high costs and administrative burdens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee received briefings from several provincial governments, including Gauteng, KZN, the Northern Cape, Western Cape, and North West, on their attempts to conduct lifestyle audits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chairperson of the committee, the DA’s Jan de Villiers, said that while progress has been made, lifestyle audits remain at an early stage of institutionalisation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are still working towards making lifestyle audits a standard and embedded practice within the public service,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is not yet a uniform approach applied across provinces; however, I commend the progress that provinces have made in developing and using lifestyle audits.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said there is a need to address the gaps identified in the Department of Public Service and Administration’s framework. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee noted that lifestyle audits appear more effective when conducted by independent bodies rather than by departments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt seems more appropriate that independent bodies lead and implement these audits, whether the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) or external audit services,\u201d said Mr de Villiers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can’t police yourself <\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration, Jan de Villiers.<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

De Villiers added that it is a challenge for ethics officers within internal departments to act as the “police” of their own institutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee also noted that the SIU is not fully empowered to conduct lifestyle audits, as it is only seconded to these audits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that a presidential proclamation remains the most effective way to ensure that the SIU is fully empowered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Villiers said that technical processes between the South African Revenue Service, the Auditor-General, National Treasury and banks are still being developed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee also found challenges in accessing the required financial records, on top of the substantial effort already required for lifestyle audits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We must look at how technology can be used to streamline the auditing process,” the chairperson said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere must be ways to make compliance easier for auditees, as obtaining the required documentation, such as bank statements, can be complex and costly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that there may be a need for legislative and budgeting reform from the National Treasury regarding how provinces are expected to fund audits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There may also be an opportunity for these processes to recover misappropriated funds and return them to departments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presentations from the provinces also showed that auditees’ declarations are often insufficient and may raise suspicion, especially where legal correspondence is involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also a clear lack of provisions requiring family members to declare their interests, with many failing to comply or submitting incomplete disclosures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis points to the need for legislative reform and stronger enforcement to clarify that family members form part of these audits and must comply accordingly,” the chairperson said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were also calls to expand lifestyle audits across all spheres of government, including local government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that many local municipalities struggle to achieve clean audits, he argued that the standards set for national and provincial government should also be applied to the local level. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration has highlighted the government’s challenges in conducting lifestyle audits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":818880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1329,25137],"class_list":["post-855887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-da","tag-the-portfolio-committee-on-public-service-and-administration-has-highlighted-the-challenges-of-doing-lifestyle-audits-of-government-employees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855887","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855900,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855887\/revisions\/855900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}