Standards Commissioner received 41 complaints in 2020

The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life received a total of 70 complaints up until 31 December 2020, 41 of which were submitted last year.

54 of these have been closed, while another 16 remain pending.

Between 12 November 2018 and 31 December 2019, the Commissioner received 29 complaints. From these, seven complaints were found ineligible for investigation, while 11 were investigated and subsequently concluded.

In 2020, 41 complaints were received, while another 11 were outstanding at the start of year.

From the 52 outstanding and new complaints last year, 23 were found ineligible for investigation, while 12 were investigated and concluded.

By end of 2020, 16 complaints remained pending, with 11 of these either under preliminary review or under investigation.

The number of complaints submitted in 2020 represents a 41 per cent increase over the number of complaints submitted in 2018 and 2019.

Between 2018 and 2020, the Commissioner received 30 complaints that were eventually found to be ineligible for investigation.

The most common reason for ineligibility was that the complaint concerned conduct that did not fall under the Standards in Public Life Act.

This means that the complaints concerned actions by members of Parliament or persons of trust that did not amount to misconduct in terms of the Act, even if those actions were considered objectionable by the complainants, the report says.

With regards to investigations, a majority of the cases brought forward in 2020 were eventually resolved by the Commissioner.

Two cases were referred to Parliament’s Standards Committee, while another two found no misconduct.

One investigation was inconclusive, while two investigations dealt with practices rather than individuals.

In total, between 2018 and 2020, 22 investigations were concluded.

No own-initiative investigations were carried out by the Commissioner in 2020.