There is an obligation on government to manage ethics, following recent failures such as Life Esidimeni, SARS and the State Capture inquiries and most recently shocking corruption related to the procurement of PPE for the Covid-19 pandemic, writes Richard Sizani and Busani Ngcaweni.
The Covid-19 pandemic put everything to the test - from healthcare systems to supply chains to social safety nets. Hard decisions had to be made by all of us and our moral character was put to the test.
Though most officials in government tried valiantly to rise to the Covid-19 challenge, unfortunately, some amongst us failed this test and brought the public service into disrepute.
The public is justified in being outraged by those whose actions were not for the greater good and sought to enrich themselves during our biggest crisis yet.
Equally outraged are ethical and hard-working public officials who are not only committed, but who work tirelessly and relentlessly in their efforts to build an ethical civil service. Public Service Month is an opportune time for the civil service to redeem itself in the eyes of the public and fix the weaknesses that Covid-19 revealed.
As we close the Public Service Month, a commemorated event under the theme: "Growing South Africa Together for an Ethical Public Service", South Africans have once again called on the leadership to urgently attend to the task of rebuilding the economy and to rescue the livelihoods of millions who have further been plunged into misery by the Covid-19 pandemic. This dream, the people have reminded us, will be deferred for as long as the public sector acts slowly on those who violate the principles of ethical governance and professionalism.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has reminded us on several occasions that one of the key priorities of the sixth administration, is to build "a capable, ethical and developmental state".
Furthermore, Chapter 10 of the Constitution dictates that public administration must be governed by the democratic values and principles, which include, among others, efficient, economic and effective use of resources.
The Public Service Regulations (2016) provide for a Code of Conduct that outlines behaviour expected of Public Service Employees to fulfil their constitutional obligation to be professional and ethical.
Obligation on government
These are important tenets because when the public sector is driven by factors other than constitutional values and principles, it inevitably leads to failures, frequently with far reaching consequences.
Some of the most severe recent values-failures were revealed at the Life Esidimeni, SARS and the State Capture inquiries and most recently, shocking corruption related to the procurement of PPE for the Covid-19 pandemic.
Given the above, there is therefore an obligation on government departments to actively manage ethics.
The National School of Government (NSG) has been relentless in its pursuit of enabling public servants to practice accountable management and to continuously monitor and improve organisational levels of adherence to compliance requirements of their constitutional mandate and relevant legislation. This is to ensure that citizens receive the quality of services that are basic to a well-functioning democracy.
Over the past decade, a number of public officials have attended the NSG's suite of good governance, financial and supply chain management programmes intended to equip them with the necessary capacity in terms of relevant knowledge, skills, behaviours, attitudes and values to practice accountable and transparent management.
These programmes draw on different policies that provide the legislative framework for compliance and consequence management within government.
Among key programmes which have been in the spotlight during this Public Service Month, is the suite of programmes that constitute Ethics Management in the Public Service. The goal is to emphasise and re-emphasise that all public servants, regardless of rank or level, are obliged to re-commit themselves to ethical behaviour and practices on a daily basis.
Therefore, in order to give effect to the constitutional obligation for public service employees to uphold ethics and integrity, as well as to promote the Code of Conduct as contained in the Public Service Regulations, 2016, the NSG in partnership with the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) and the Public Service Commission (PSC) developed and launched a compulsory online Ethics course to ensure that we move forward on becoming a truly values-driven public sector.
The negative effects of non-compliance and the lack of consequence management in the public sector is well known and it is well documented especially by the Auditor-General of South Africa Reports.
The Auditor-General has, during the past few years, started to report on departments' inability to manage consequences.
In its 2016-17 report, the AGSA observes that there was a tangible regression in consequence management in departments and again urged government departments to take the appropriate actions based on the auditor's investigations and findings. A keen finding was that instances of poor consequence management created susceptibility to fraudulent and corrupt practices.
The AGSA further argues that accountability can be improved if there is a consistent and deliberate action against officials who intentionally, or negligently, commit acts of non-compliance with legislation or, those who have been found guilty of misconduct or fraud.
The PFMA and the MFMA and their regulations set out the specifications for such investigations into the abuse of supply chain management processes, irregular and fruitless expenditures and any assertions of financial misconduct.
The Public Audit Amendment Act no 25 of 2004 was amended in April 2019 in an effort to strengthen the provisions made for consequence management in the PFMA and the MFMA.
Government departments were entreated to pay attention to consequence management at last!
Why is consequence management needed?
Consequence management is needed as the lack thereof perpetuates the loss of state money resulting in inadequate funding for essential services, irregular and unauthorised expenditure and poor audit reports. One can further argue that consequence management is imperative to ensure that expenditure is recovered from those persons found liable in law for condoning of such expenditure.
A far more serious adverse effect of the lack of consequence management is ultimately the loss of confidence in government's ability to provide services, its ability to govern and pervading discourse of being labeled as corrupt. This serves to negate any gains achieved in other areas.
For example, the well-planned response to the Covid-19 pandemic by this state which has even been lauded by the WHO, was marred by the widespread corruption of tender processes related to services and goods related to stemming the pandemic.
A key challenge for consequence management is understanding the different role players and the applicability of the law in the disciplinary processes as well as the recovery processes. Understandably, there are expectations from the public to see quick results in these actions.
Yet, it is important to improve the success rate that proper processes have to be followed.
Maybe part of the PSC's communication strategy in the future should be how progress on these matters are communicated readily to the public so that there is more tangible evidence of consequence management and accountability measures to the public.
A world without corruption
As the Minister of Public Service and Administration, Senzo Mchunu, rightly puts it, "Ethical conduct and organisational integrity are key in eradicating fraud and corruption in the public service. As the training arm of government, it is therefore imperative that the NSG implements this training programme that will equip public officials with the skills and competencies to make ethical decisions, to develop organisational integrity, to prevent fraud and combat corruption in the Public Sector".
As we engage more rigorously in our analysis of ethics and corruption, let us imagine a world that exists without corruption.
Let us exercise leadership and judgement in the building of a world that rests on the principles of Ubuntu.
This is not an impossibility - it must be our reality and the NSG and PSC pledges to mobilise all their capabilities to achieve this.
-Adv. Richard Sizani is the Chairperson of the Public Service Commission and Busani Ngcaweni is the Principal of the National School of Government