The Public Service Commission (PSC) has called for National Treasury to conduct a cost-based analysis to understand what the cost of capped leave will be over the next 3 to 5 years as it stood at more than R16.2 billion as at December last year.

According to commissioner Anele Gxoyiya, they were finalising a study on the utilisation of specific categories of leave in the Public Service.

The Report titled: The Utilisation of Categories of Leave in the Public Service: Facts, Observations and Recommendations is expected to be released in 2025.

As at December 31, 2023, the number of employees with capped leave is 189 039, roughly 14% of employees in the Public Service.

The greatest cost was within the national government at just under R4bn, followed by the Eastern Cape, then Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.

“The department with the highest rand value of capped leave is the SAPS with 29 989 employees who have capped leave amounting to 1 489 663 days. The top three national departments with the highest number of employees with capped leave are from the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) sector.

The commissioner was considering the option of allowing employees with capped leave to buy back pension with the current value of capped leave credits they hold, with due consideration to the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF) rules.

Another option was a once-off payout now of two thirds of the employees’ capped leave now to reduce the future financial impact of paying later.

This emerged on Monday during a PSC briefing on the Pulse of Public Service bulletin covering the period July 1 to December 31, 2024.

Gxoyiya said out of 42 national departments, only 19 departments fully complied with legislation of timeous payments - an improvement from the 17 in the first quarter.

At the end of the second quarter of the 2024/25 financial year, the number of invoices paid after 30 days by national departments was 40 562, worth R 752 million.

The Department of Defence reported the highest number of invoices paid after 30 days at 35 517 invoices, amounting to R348 million.

“This Department was still the highest during the first quarter with 18 496 invoices or 61% of the total number of invoices paid after 30 days to the rand value of R269 million.

“The National Treasury is commended for efforts to continuously assist suppliers with queries over non-payment of invoices. It has been following up with transgressing institutions and providing feedback to suppliers.

“Out of 98 queries received by the National Treasury amounting to R48 million, only two cases have been resolved with the intervention of the office of the Accountant-General (OAG). Therefore the PSC further impresses on departments, both at national and provincial sphere, to co-operate with National Treasury to ensure that cases are resolved timeously,” said Gxoyiya.

Cape Times