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Prison bosses rapped

"These department officials are committing gross offences, we dismissed 183 this year, 88 last year."

THE Department of Correctional Services has been hauled over the coals by the parliamentary oversight committee for failing to fire ill-disciplined employees.

Addressing a senior delegation of officials led by Correctional Services Commissioner Tom Moyane, chairman of the portfolio committee on correctional services and ANC MP Vincent Smith said yesterday it was unthinkable that serious offenders were merely given a slap on the wrist and sent back to their posts.

According to the annual report for the 2011-12 financial year, 4,171 cases of misconduct were recorded by the department, with 421 considered serious.

But Smith fumed when it emerged that only 183 employees had been dismissed.

"These department officials are committing gross offences, we dismissed 183 this year, 88 last year," Smith said.

The 421 serious offences pointed out by Smith included 152 cases of theft, fraud and corruption; eight cases of sexual harassment; 41 counts of sleeping on the job.

About 119 cases of officials being drunk or on drugs while on duty were also recorded while there had been 32 instances of officials being caught in the possession of liquor and drugs on duty and a further 32 cases of firearms misuse.

Another 238 officers had been charged with assault or threatening behaviour and 385 had been charged with breaching security measures.

"You've given people warnings for offences that if they were in the private sector they would be locked up for," Smith said.

"What is happening in the department national commissioner that such things are happening on your watch?"

Moyane said as accounting officer of correctional services he took full responsibility for the problems in the department.

But he pointed out that lengthy internal legal processes were making it difficult to fire people on the spot.

Chief deputy commissioner of human resources Teboho Mokoena concurred.

He said there was an unwritten rule that the presiding officer's decision following disciplinary procedures could not be challenged.

"If a person is found sleeping on the job, which is a dismissable offence... if a presiding officer for whatever reason decided that a written warning is justifiable, you as an employer is said to have been part of that decision by virtue of a letter that you issued in appointing that individual," Mokoena said.

He said the presiding officers were often not equipped to handle the intricacies of the various offences.

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