IT appears that senior managers in government have a "greater propensity" for committing fraud.

IT appears that senior managers in government have a "greater propensity" for committing fraud.

So said the Public Service Commission (PSC) yesterday when it released figures for employee fraud in national and provincial government for the 2007-08 financial year.

The PSC said 868 cases of financial misconduct were reported compared with 1042 the previous financial year. Of these 82percent had resulted in guilty findings.

A third of the fraud and theft cases reported were from KwaZulu-Natal, which had had problems with social grant fraud.

The proportion of employees nailed, who came from the lower-paid salary levels one to eight, 86 percent matched their proportions in the make-up of the service as a whole, the PSC said.

But while employees at the senior management service (SMS) level made up only 0,7percent of public servants, they accounted for 2,5percent of finalised misconduct cases.

There had also been an increase in the percentage of SMS members at salary levels 13 to 15. - Sapa