29 Sep 2006: ISS Today: Review of South African Public Service Code Long Overdue

29 September 2006: Review of SA Public Service Code long overdue

The promotion and maintenance of a high standard of professional ethics in the public service is key to ensuring that government remains responsive to the needs of the poor. One way of ensuring that this principle, enshrined in the South African Constitution, is met is the occasional review of institutional ethics policies. Revising a country`s ethics infrastructure from time to time ensures an up to date ethics framework that is relevant to changing times.

 

Commentary

 

As important as that principle may be, the need for a comprehensive review of the South African Public Service Code of Conduct is more than a matter of adherence to best practice. It is, indeed, not acceptable that almost nine years have lapsed since the introduction of the Code in 1997, without review. This should however not in itself constitute the main reason for review, as recent Public Service Commission (PSC) recommendations appear to suggest.

 

The review rather should be effected against the backdrop of disturbing ethical trends emerging from the Public Service over the last few years. The findings presented in recent reports by Auditor-General and the PSC’s State of the Public Service Report persistently highlight these, including rampant financial misconduct. This continues to flourish despite the existence of a Public Service Code of Conduct, which exhorts public servants to report corruption, fraud, nepotism or any act that is inimical to the public interest. The sheer incapacity of some departments to submit finalised financial misconduct cases to the PSC in accordance with existing regulations is also an increasing source of frustration for the Commission. Importantly it also leaves transgressors without much to regret – and thereby fuels a culture of impunity.

 

This is a perennial problem, particularly when considering the total cost of financial misconduct. The PSC’s latest ‘State of the Public Service Report’ estimates this at R120,5 million (US$16million). This is a rather conservative estimate considering the by no means insignificant number of national and provincial departments who fail to submit the cost of financial misconduct to the PSC. The reported recovery of R97,2 million (US$12,5million) of these monies is therefore not particularly consoling. 

 

Given these problems, the existing Public Service Code of Conduct clearly does not succeed as a vehicle for upholding the first Constitutional Principle for public administration - the promotion and maintenance of high standards of ethics. Attributing this failure to non-compliance has been the overarching explanation. However, in the light of the recent PSC Report on Measuring the Efficacy of the Code of Conduct for Public Servants, the problem appears more fundamental. The report points out that a significant number of public servants - 27% in total - believe that the Code is not as influential as it ought to be. Recommendations to ensure compliance with the code and make it more user-friendly, including the proposed initiative to produce a plain language guide of the code, must be tackled now with vigour.

 

Andile Sokomani, Corruption & Governance Programme