Civil servants stole more than R300 million of public money in the past financial year, the Sunday Times reported.
This was according to a report by the Public Service Commission (PSC) tabled in Parliament this week.
The PSC probed financial misconduct in 39 national departments and nine provincial governments.
A total of 1135 cases of financial misconduct was committed by civil servants during the 2009/2010 financial year.
Of these 998 were found guilty of taking R346 million from state coffers, the newspaper said.
This figure was the highest recorded in five years — representing a staggering 346 percent growth compared with R100 million in 2008/2009.
The PSC slammed the government for not robustly pursuing criminal prosecution.
“Failure to institute criminal action… may encourage acts of financial misconduct to continue to be on the rise,” said the report.