Measures to guard against state capture
Helen Suzman Foundation proposes changes to accounting, legal, management and consulting sectors
THE Helen Suzman Foundation has proposed a range of changes in accounting, legal, management and consulting sectors in order to thwart future state capture, which it says was partially aided by lapses in these four professions.
The foundation is one of the country’s more prominent organisations, and has been involved in various litigation against the government, and has been vocal against state capture.
It also made a legal input that forced President Cyril Ramaphosa to allow the prosecution of people who had incriminated themselves at the state capture commission chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
In four papers dealing with state capture released late last week, the foundation’s legal researcher Cherese Thakur said the blemishes left by the conduct of lawyers in the context of state capture would be difficult to remove, and would probably endure in the public consciousness for some time to come.
She advised that the law profession should uphold the Constitution at all times, as per their oath of office.
“It is imperative that firms have a whistle-blowing policy in place.
“The Protected Disclosures Act places an obligation on employers to create internal procedures for receiving and dealing with disclosures, and to take reasonable steps to make these known to their employees.
These procedures gave a means for professionals within firms to raise concerns about impropriety – even if committed by others within the firm – while still enjoying protection under the law, she said.
Taking on the accounting sector, Thakur said it had aided state capture by turning a blind eye to corruption, and by sometimes aiding it.
She said that regulators must not wait for a crime to be committed before acting.
Rather, they must be proactive, she said.
“One explanation for this may be that regulators are constrained by the mandate set out in legislation or constitutive documents. This may require that a complaint be lodged before an investigation can be initiated,” she said in her paper.
She said professionals themselves had two very obvious duties when they discovered malfeasance.
The first, of course, was not to participate in it themselves. The second was to report it.
Thakur further said the management sector should also be looked at because of the prominent role it played in formulating government policy. The influence of management consultants had had a profound effect on South Africa over the past few years. That influence extended to state capture as well.
“Compared with the other professions in this brief, management consulting is relatively young. In its fairly short existence, it has yet to subject itself to any kind of general regulation – which some would argue means it cannot rightfully be classed as a ‘profession’ in the first place.
“In any event, the lack of a supervisory body enforcing a code of ethics has enabled gross abuses of power. Even while their role is advisory, the influence they exert over the development of policy is very real,” she said.
“As such, it is deeply concerning that their work is not subject to the same safeguards as other professions.”