The Public Service Commission (PSC) is to review guidelines for gifts and discounts to civil servants.

The news comes amid the controversy over gifts and discounted cars sold to government officials and politicians by the European Aeronautic Defence & Space (Eads) company, a subcontractor in the R43bn arms deal.

PSC chairman Stan Sangweni says the review should be completed in the next six months.

"Discounts and gifts to public servants can cause a conflict of interest if not kept under control," says Sangweni.

A senior researcher at public policy study group Idasa, Ebrahim Fakir, says any attempt to tighten the rules on gifts and discounts to officials would help to restore the public's shaken confidence.

Sangweni says it is not illegal for public servants to receive gifts, as long as they are gifts in "the traditional sense". It is a conflict of interest for a public servant to receive a discount from a prospective service provider, he says.

At present, public servants are required to disclose all gifts worth more than R350. "Such a disclosure is mandatory; refusal to do so is misconduct," says Sangweni.

The Department of Trade & Industry has already begun a "preliminary internal investigation" to determine whether one of its senior officials, Vanan Pillay, who "participated in the critical aspects" of the arms deal, fully disclosed the discount he received on a car he bought from Eads.

Other beneficiaries of generous car discounts include the chief of the SA National Defence Force, Siphiwe Nyanda, politician-turned-mining magnate Tokyo Sexwale and African National Congress chief Whip Tony Yengeni.  

With acknowledgment to William Mervin Gumede and the Financial Mail.