Assignment task:
Ethics recovery - with a state capture hangover
The decline of ethical standards in organisations in South Africa has been thoroughly lamented over the past decade. The lamentations reached an increase as revelations about corrupt practices were revealed before the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.
There could be no doubt that the period of state capture seriously damaged the moral fibre of organisations in the private, public, and state-owned sectors. It is unlikely that in our history as a democracy, there have been so many cries for the restoration of ethical leadership in our organisations.
In a recent survey South Africa ranked first for employees being aware of misconduct in their organisations. Thus, despite high levels of awareness of ethical standards in South African businesses, and despite leadership and middle management support to do the right thing, unethical behaviour and practices still prevail. One mitigating factor in this regard may be that it is exactly the high levels of awareness of ethical standards that make South Africans more sensitive to observing misconduct in their organisations. It was also encouraging to see that South Africans were quite willing to report the misconduct that they observed via their internal and external reporting mechanisms. In fact, South Africans ranked second highest for their willingness to report misconduct in their organisations. The findings also revealed that South Africa ranked second highest for employees feeling pressured to compromise the ethical standards of their organisations.
Thirdly, and equally concerning, was the finding that South African employees felt - more than in any of other countries that participated in the survey - that honesty is not practiced at work. This leaves one with the troubling question: How can South African businesses do so well with their ethics management programmes but perform so poorly when it comes to the actual prevalence of misconduct and to compromising ethical standards and honesty in the workplace?
The explanation for these seemingly contradictory findings might be related to a hangover from the era of state capture. South Africans might have become so used to the unethical practices associated with the era of state capture, that old bad habits still prevail and are actively endorsed as part of the "way we do business here".
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 fulfill their constitutional obligation to be professional and ethical. 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, behaviors, attitudes and values to practice accountable and transparent management.
Question 1:
In the narrative it is mentioned that 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. Critically discuss the importance of ethical behavior and the effective management of ethics in the public sector.