The Department of Water and Sanitation fired a senior official for double-dipping after she did not leave her previous job in a municipality when the national department hired her.
The department found that Gabonewe Madikela, who worked for the Moses Kotane Municipality in the North West, had not resigned from that position when the National Department of Water and Sanitation employed her in April last year.
She continued to receive her salary from the municipality and from the Department of Water and Sanitation.
The department picked up that she was drawing two salaries at the same time.
“The investigation sought to establish the merits of simultaneous employment contracts and to determine if she defrauded the municipality an amount of approximately R778 557 by deliberately misleading it into believing that she could not report for duty as she was on paid leave, whereas she was rendering services at the (Department of Water and Sanitation),” said the department.
For almost a year, this continued while Madikela claimed to the municipality she was off sick.
She submitted sick notes to the municipality and kept her job in the national department.
It said Madikela had violated a number of regulations in the public service.
“Chapter 7 of the SMS Handbook was also contravened when Ms Madikela made a misrepresentation for failing to submit a resignation letter and continued to submit leave forms and sick notes to Moses Kotane Local Municipality, thereby creating an impression that she was not well and that she had been hospitalised whilst this was not the case,” said the department.
It added that after the disciplinary hearings, Madikela pleaded guilty to the charges she faced and was subsequently dismissed from the public service.
Madikela had been employed in the national department as a director in the Bulk Water and Pricing Unit.
This was after she had gone through the rigorous process of appointment.
But she failed to resign from the municipality and kept the two jobs.
The department said this was dishonest and misleading, and serious action had to be taken.
It said it would not allow public servants to act with impunity when there were laws that protect the public service.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
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