Management and professional development
Fighting corruption is at the core of delivering services
There has been a steady increase in the number of public sector officials who have been pursued in South Africa for criminal acts. Fraud, corruption, nepotism and theft are the scourge of a correctly functioning public service.
Governance issues are at the forefront of citizen’s minds with izimbizo held by government Ministers clearly highlighting this aspect.
The major problem for community members is being protected when blowing the whistle on corruption.
A roundtable discussion on anti-corruption was hosted by the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) in Tshwane recently and was aimed at providing in-depth information on the work done by various institutions of state in the fight against corruption.
Protection for whistleblowers
“There is legislation in place to protect whistleblowers. Whistleblowing is something that is protected and it forms an integral part of the fight against corruption,” said Advocate Malini Govender of the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit at the discussion.
The reality is that citizens and government workers who report corruption are protected by law. In the case of the public service, the Protected Disclosures Act makes provision for employees to report unlawful or irregular conduct by employers and fellow employees, while providing for the protection of employees who blow the whistle. But how do you go about it if you are fearful of repercussions?
There are various strategies that good managers use to detect fraud.
1. Authority
The first is clearly to have an authority within a department who is dedicating to detect and investigating fraud. Written policies are now de rigueur in the public service, so staff know exactly what is and is not allowed.
2. Whistleblower zones
The second is using specific communication techniques to allow staff to pass on information about
corruption. What form of communication is permissible and how would a whistleblower be protected from the wrong people? This usually involves a trusted person within the organisation who has clean hands and no record of financial and other abuse.
3. Internal fraud audit training
Each Chief Financial Officer is trained to spot fraud because that is what good accountants have as the basis of their studies.The investigators who audit should be naturally inquisitive and persistent and must be able to process a great deal of information and scattered details.
4.Audit alertness
Whether you are a financial manager or a generic manager, being able to spot fraud from afar is a real strength. Do not turn your back on fraud because you are then an accessory to a crime and can be charged in connection with that crime. Saying you were unaware that it was a crime is no defense because governance policies are now subject to routine audits themselves.
5. Document testing
Be aware of details of documents, inconsistent numbers, dates and addresses, alterations, the use of different pens, the varying thickness of paper and the incorrect use of branding.
Advocate Gerhard Visagie of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) outlined the unit’s approach to investigations and said investigators always worked within the law.
“We can only investigate cases once they are mandated through a proclamation signed by the President. In practice, what happens is that we receive cases of corruption and malpractice and we prepare a motivation that goes to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and then The Presidency before we investigate,” said Visagie.
Zero tolerance
GCIS Acting Director-General Phumla Williams said the fight against corruption is one of the foremost priorities of government which had adopted a zero tolerance approach to corrupt activities in the public and private sectors.
An Anti-Corruption Inter-Ministerial Committee was established in
2014 and is mandated to coordinate and oversee the work of state organs aimed at combating corruption in the public and private sectors.
For its part, the National Prosecuting Authority obtained convictions against 311 government officials between April 2016 and November 2017. Some of the cases
“Public servants should be introduced to a culture of fraud detection and fraud reporting. As much as it is the responsibility of an accounting officer to ensure risk management and measures to prevent fraud in an organisation, it also becomes everybody’s responsibility to prevent and report fraud in every section of a department.”
– Dr Batandwa Siswana
involve three police officers who were convicted of fraud and corruption and sentenced to imprisonment ranging from seven to 10 years.
The Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) has also recovered millions of rands including R144 million related to municipal land corruptly sold to private individuals and in the Northern Cape the AFU obtained a confiscation order linked to R59.8 million that had been fraudulently claimed and charged by a company in respect of a lease agreement with provincial authorities.
Clean governance
The concept of clean governance is as old as the concept of governance itself. There are numerous stories through the ages of good ideas corrupted by bad people who destroy government by stealing budgets.
Dr Batandwa Siswana delivered a thesis in Public Affairs in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of Pretoria on the reporting of financial misconduct in government departments. What he found was perturbing.
The main weakness he noted then was the irregularity with regard to reporting standards by departments, particularly on financial misconduct. Some departments actually failed to submit reports of irregularities as required by the Public Finance Management Act and Treasury regulations thinking that they would simply get away with it.
According to Dr Siswana there was no sign of action on behalf of the departments to institute proper disciplinary steps against employees for unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
For governance to flourish, those who are caught doing wrong must face the full weight of the law.
So in light of these developments, there are various programmes at work in South Africa today as government seeks to reduce corruption in the public sector.
For example, all tenders will be published online so that any member of the public can see who has issued the tender, and who has successfully bid on a tender. Furthermore, the full names of the owners of these companies must be accessible to ensure that tenderpreneurs are exposed.
Good governance, in a nutshell, is often interpreted as a government that is free from corruption.
So it’s imperative that the powerful groupings inside government including clusters of Ministers, corresponding clusters of Directors-General and the Forum of South African Directors-General or FOSAD and the forums for Ministers and members of the Executive Council act in unison.The Batho Pele or “people first” culture is now required in order for public sector workers to have an impact as individuals.
Fighting corruption is at the core of delivering services, because the money lost to corrupt people means it’s also lost to the citizen.
Any suspicion of corruption can be reported to 0800 701 701.