CORRUPTION in the Department of Public Works is "so deep that it's scary" and staff morale is at its lowest ebb.
Briefing Parliament's portfolio committee on public works, acting director-general Mandisa Fatyela-Lindi said her department had roped in a team of governance and management experts to help.
The "support team" would consist of technocrats and specialists in asset management, procurement, and public finance management who would be drawn from departments such as the National Treasury.
Fatyela-Lindi said auditing firm Ernst& was already helping her department to draw up an asset register and establish a fully functional internal audit unit.
The Public Works Department, which handles tenders worth R150-million every month, is the government assets and property manager.
But the department has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, with the most notable scandal being the R2-billion SAPS building lease that has seen former Public Works minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde fired from her post and police commissioner Bheki Cele suspended from his job.
Several more senior managers of the department are on suspension because of this matter and other related cases while the special investigating unit was probing more questionable lease deals.
Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi, who was appointed in October last year, said last week that his department, together with National Treasury, would audit almost 4000 lease agreements.
These leases total more than R3-billion a year.
Fatyela-Lindi said all of this, including a high turnover of senior managers, was contributing to low morale among more than 4300 mostly junior staff.
"In the department itself there is low worker morale. At our level we can at least uplift ourselves but we must also not downplay the morale of staff that does not sit in the executive and [are] watching what is happening there," she said.
"We need to have a change manager who will assist us to deal with those issues because they [the staff] are very central to the success of this turnaround."
Low morale hits Public Works staff
CORRUPTION in the Department of Public Works is "so deep that it's scary" and staff morale is at its lowest ebb.
Briefing Parliament's portfolio committee on public works, acting director-general Mandisa Fatyela-Lindi said her department had roped in a team of governance and management experts to help.
The "support team" would consist of technocrats and specialists in asset management, procurement, and public finance management who would be drawn from departments such as the National Treasury.
Fatyela-Lindi said auditing firm Ernst& was already helping her department to draw up an asset register and establish a fully functional internal audit unit.
The Public Works Department, which handles tenders worth R150-million every month, is the government assets and property manager.
But the department has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, with the most notable scandal being the R2-billion SAPS building lease that has seen former Public Works minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde fired from her post and police commissioner Bheki Cele suspended from his job.
Several more senior managers of the department are on suspension because of this matter and other related cases while the special investigating unit was probing more questionable lease deals.
Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi, who was appointed in October last year, said last week that his department, together with National Treasury, would audit almost 4000 lease agreements.
These leases total more than R3-billion a year.
Fatyela-Lindi said all of this, including a high turnover of senior managers, was contributing to low morale among more than 4300 mostly junior staff.
"In the department itself there is low worker morale. At our level we can at least uplift ourselves but we must also not downplay the morale of staff that does not sit in the executive and [are] watching what is happening there," she said.
"We need to have a change manager who will assist us to deal with those issues because they [the staff] are very central to the success of this turnaround."
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