Complaints about the social grants fraud have topped the list of grievances lodged by the public in the national anti-corruption hotline in the first quarter of 2019.

This was revealed in the quarterly bulletin released by the Public Service Commission (PSC) on Thursday in Pretoria. A total 727 cases were reported to the hotline between April 2018 and March 2019. PSC referred the cases to the South African Social Security Agency.

The second highest number of cases (70) related to the irregular appointments. Other cases related to fraud and bribery (40), tender irregularities (38), abuse of government resources (17) and illegal immigration (15).

There were also 40 cases of complaints relating to service delivery. Launched in 2004, the hotline was introduced by government to create a central database for the reporting and monitoring of cases of corruption, while eliminating the duplication of investigation and resources.

PSC as the institution tasked with overseeing the performance of the public service is responsible for the hotline. Its commissioner Michael Seloane said the complaints were received relating to various national departments in its first quarter which ended June 2019.

Complaints about the department of correctional services topped the list with six followed by the department of higher education and training with four, water sanitation, police, human settlements, rural development and land reform all had three complaints each.

“It is understandable that the highest number of complaints are from the department of correctional services, given the large number of employees in that department. It is surprising that only three complaints are in respect of SAPS, having regard to the challenges encountered by members of the SAPS. It can be presumed that complaints by members of the SAPS are being reported to the Independent Police Investigations Directorate (Ipid) which is also an institution to which complaints may be lodged against members of the SAPS,” said Seloane.

With regard to provinces, the Eastern Cape had the highest complaints brought to the PSC at 18, followed by Gauteng (15), Limpopo (12), North West (12), Free State (11) and KwaZulu-Natal with nine.

“It would seem that the Eastern Cape is the least compliant province insofar as the regulatory framework is concerned as the majority of complaints concern irregular appointments and non-adherence to the prescripts. The majority of complaints in the other provinces concern irregular appointments,” Seloane said.