“Accepting ‘gifts’ could land government officials in jail”
There is no such a thing as a free lunch when you are a government official and accept a “token of appreciation” from a member of the public. Former president Kgalema Motlanthe, when he was still deputy president, used to tell his senior officials that they should avoid such offerings, no matter how innocuous.
He would advise that some people inevitably expect their gifts to harvest their investment at some point. He said that one day, while standing at the back of a government office queue, these instant friends would see you and say: “Heita, broer. Remember me?”
As the recipient of their largesse, you would be compelled to help them jump the queue — less out of pity or compassion than a sense of obligation. This activates the descending slope to serving people with fear and favour, Motlanthe said.
We all have our anecdotes. Once, while I was on leave, a basket of chocolates, fruit and flowers was delivered to my office, accompanied by an unsigned Christmas card. I asked my colleagues to record the basket and help themselves to its contents. Two months later, the benefactor, a lady I had never met, called me requesting tickets for the state of the nation address.
She explained that she was under tremendous pressure to get her boss into parliament, and was disappointed that I was not in a position to assist. She then reminded me of the confectionery-laden basket, to which I retorted: “You know, sisi, I am glad I never ate those things but my guys told me the fruit was third-grade ...” Needless to say, things did not end well. I later learnt that another colleague had had a similar experience.
Such scenarios come to mind when considering the national discourse around building an ethical, developmental and capable bureaucracy with the necessary firewalls to avoid moral temptations and ethical dilemmas.
A few weeks ago, public service & administration minister Senzo Mchunu invited all public servants to enrol for a compulsory online course on ethics in the public service offered by the National School of Government.
While this was widely welcomed and hundreds of public servants enrolled, some have since questioned why public servants should be taught ethics, which is now a prerequisite to applying to join government. Others expressed doubt about the impact of this training, saying the system is broken irreparably and lacks consequence management for wrongdoing. They posited that even the most ethical of public servants end up embroiled in crooked dealings because of pressure from political principals, citing Covid-19-related procurement irregularities to demonstrate the extent of the damage in the system.
As public servants, we have to think long and hard about the ramifications of this erosion of public trust and confidence. We must honestly reflect on such public perceptions and find ways to reverse them. We have a moral, political and constitutional obligation to serve the public effectively and efficiently, with integrity.
The heads of departments who served in the first democratic administration were in the main men and women of courage who built institutions, reformed policy, transformed public administration and effectively implemented development programmes. Our diplomats rebuilt our stature abroad and laid a firm foundation for their successors. Their efforts made SA a regional and international force to be reckoned with.
The second decade of our freedom, from 2004 to 2014, was altogether different. Although there were notable positive achievements, including impressive GDP growth and the 2010 FifaWorld Cup, the bad part was the abuse of state institutions to settle political scores, the rise of cronyism and corruption, and deepening inequality. We are now in the third decade, whose final years are led by a sixth administration carrying the mandate of renewal. It is this cohort that is expected to deliver on the promise of the National Development Plan: Vision for 2030.
The burning question is what will this generation of civil servants be remembered for, especially those occupying senior and executive positions? The expectations of the public are clear: deliver or be relegated to a footnote in history.
Addressing the inaugural Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection annual lecture in March 2012, the late professor Thandika Mkandawire mentioned that part of the success story of postwar Germany and Japan can be explained by an amount of embarrassment felt by the leadership.
Amid other variables, he was of the view that it was primarily this embarrassment and compunction that inspired them to rebuild their societies and economies at breakneck speed.
Given the meta-narrative of an incompetent and irredeemably corrupt civil service, are we, like the Germans and the Japanese, embarrassed enough to chart a new path towards a committed, diligent, masterful, prudent, innovative, ethical and accountable civil service? Or will we gladly receive gifts and feast on them oblivious that we are partaking of a poisoned chalice?
The state needs the mandarins, the most skilled managers in the public service who are committed to the mandate of transformation. They must diligently implement this mandate purposefully and with the necessary speed.
They must be prudent in the management of public funds to sustain accountable and responsible governance. Once the state starts sustaining the public sector wage bill through loans from international finance institutions, the slide towards failed statehood begins. This requires heads of departments to develop new ways of budgeting and expenditure control, in line with the prescripts of the Public Finance Management Act and the Municipal Finance Management Act.
They must do rigorous financial modelling to determine scenarios of sustained service delivery commitments, and on productive investment versus consumption expenditure. The moment demands that senior public servants be masterful in the delivery of services. This means the ability to effectively implement government programmes to support an ethical and accountable public service.
Public sector managers are also expected to introduce innovative ways of doing things, including better use of technology to increase the scale and efficiency of service delivery. Urgent reskilling interventions are needed, from ethics to management practices and financial management and, more importantly, to execution diligence.
Heads of departments must constantly relook at their annual performance plans and accounting officers should always avoid the risks of failure to plan, the misuse of resources and irrational decisions. Given the current challenges of eroded public confidence, pressures on the fiscus and growing public expectations, they should exercise due prudence to prevent the loss of public funds to malfeasance, including corruption. An entire department can be brought down by an accounting officer who accepts a gratuity or “friendly gift” from someone with an agenda.
Just as the road to hell is paved with good intentions, so too is the road to good governance littered with the potholes of moral and ethical temptation. The very first step towards building the capable, ethical and developmental state we aspire to have is inculcating a culture of strong resistance to sweeteners in all their forms.
Submitting a declaration form will not suffice. Avoiding being put in a compromising situation in the first place is imperative.
“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” wrote Virgil in the Aeneid . And the story of the wooden horse of Troy is well known. Free tickets to the VIP box at the jazz festival have a way of coming back to haunt you when the generous patron calls you up needing help with “negotiating” procurement regulations. And fruit baskets have a way of ending up with orange overalls, as we read in Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease.
Let’s rethink our ways, comrades. This is a moment of reckoning. The meta-narrative of being corrupt and incompetent can be replaced with that of execution diligence, professionalism and effective governance.