Mduduzi Mbada
Johannesburg - On the 2nd of December 2022 the Gauteng Ethics Advisory Council (GEAC), a civil society led under the leadership of Dr Terence Nombembe, convened a round-table session to continue discussing how to give advice and Executive Council on institutionalising integrity across the GCR.
The GEAC comprises men and women of high integrity, individuals who have distinguished themselves for being beyond reproach. The work of the GEAC was published in the biannual report that was released early this year. The report recommended that the 6th Administration of the Gauteng Province should implement, among others, the following areas:
● Consistent adherence to constitutional values.
● Provide effective oversight.
● Full implementation of the recommendations of Chapter 9 and 10 Constitutional institutions.
● Effective integrity management programme.
● Communication of success stories.
● Adoption of the Integrity Pact as part of the procurement process.
Premier Lesufi added his voice to the round-table session, reaffirming the commitment of the 6th Administration to institutionalising integrity and ethics within the system of government to prevent fraud, corruption, and maladministration, as well as promoting a culture of good governance, transparency, and accountability.
The round-table session saw high-powered participation comprising heads of institutions of the Auditor General of South Africa, the Acting Public Protector, the head of Hawks, the head of the Public Service Commission and the Chairperson of the Gauteng Audit committee. The central message from the various heads of the institutions was that the approach taken by Gauteng to work collaboratively in tackling corruption was both commendable and welcome.
The round-table widely felt that the premier was setting a good tone from the top, a critical requirement predicting the building of a developmental and ethical state. In the same breadth, the session emphasised that to win the war against corruption everyone from the premier, the MECs, the DG and the HODs as well as the entire administration needed to commit to the task at hand.
One of the most important things is investing in systems and controls and mitigating emerging risks in the system. Equally, to successfully implement the plan we must invest in a skilled, capable, ethical workforce and supporting initiatives to build a developmental state. Targeting clean governance and ethical leadership is one of the priorities of our City Region’s GGT2030 Plan (provincial actional plan).
In the immediate future, the focus of the 6th Administration is on the implementation of the following elevated priorities:
● Economic recovery – prioritising townships.
● Strengthening the immediate fight against crime, corruption, vandalism, and lawlessness.
● Improving the living standards in townships, informal settlements and hostels (TISH).
● Building the capacity of the state to render services.
● Building the communication capacity of the state.
The provincial government is mindful that the implementation of these elevated priorities is going to introduce projects with increased budgets, especially on community safety and development/investment in TISH. This may tempt the corrupt to try their hands at these programmes, meant to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in our province. History has taught us that corruption is the biggest risk to the successful implementation of government programmes.
In consequence, we will be proactive by putting in place mitigating measures to both detect and prevent acts of corruption. Failure to do so may result in the total collapse of these programmes. We are buoyed by the presence of GEAC in our province, a body intended to further strengthen partnerships to promote integrity and fight corruption.
Among others, GEAC is actively collaborating with stakeholders who can assist meaningfully in promoting integrity and fighting corruption in the province. These stakeholders include the Special Investigating Unit, Public Protector, Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation – Hawks, Public Service Commission, Auditor General, and Gauteng Audit Committee.
Currently, these stakeholders are devising important ongoing, multi-faceted interventions to support the Executive Authorities to ensure an improved state of ethics in the province. Among these are effective consequence management, full implementation of combined assurance model in the province, use of internal audit report for risk identification purposes, provincial risk profile which is approved and monitored by Executive Council, as well as regular monitoring of high-risk departments (Health, Education, Infrastructure, Roads, Safety, Finance).
The Gauteng Provincial Government is determined to work tirelessly to create safe avenues for the reporting of corruption and guaranteeing the anonymity of whistle-blowers. Efforts to update GPG Whistleblowing Policy are at an advanced stage. This involves consultation with all the relevant stakeholders. It remains our shared responsibility to protect brave employees and citizens who are blowing the whistle against any form of wrongdoing. We are also consulting with relevant agencies like the Hawks and NPA to ensure an effective witness protection programme.
The publication of the Premier’s Report on the State of Ethics, Integrity & Clean Governance in the Gauteng Province as well as the GEAC’s Biennial Report is a good step for the enhancement of transparency in public processes. This should be viewed as the government’s attempt to enhance transparency and accountability. We are also identifying areas of possible collaboration with the above partners to assist in creating a corruption-free Gauteng City Region.
As part of this effort, the Gauteng Provincial Government has been prioritising the upholding of the transparency principle in public processes. This was exemplified by the introduction of the Open Tender System in our province. Furthermore, the Gauteng Provincial Government is taking another step forward in this process by continuously publicising all the final forensic investigation reports and the status of implementation of recommendations.
Considering the procurement of goods and services a high-risk area susceptible to corrupt activities, GEAC has been leading efforts to ensure the adoption of the Integrity Pact which ought to be legally binding and enforceable to both provincial government departments and its service providers. Ideally, the Integrity Pact should make it easier for the provincial government to review and terminate the contractual obligations with service providers that breach the Integrity Pact with minimal risk of litigation. Hence, the provincial government has considered requesting businesses to submit a signed pact and pledge as part of their bid documents.
Commitment should come from the chief executive officer that the bidding company is committed to ethical practices. Failure to adhere to this will lead to disqualification of the bidding company.
The other notable intervention in procuring goods and services is ensuring the vetting and lifestyle audits of all the officials involved with these processes.
In conclusion, we are mindful that the implementation of reforms to address unethical conduct is not the responsibility of the government alone but of all sectors of society. Accordingly, the Gauteng Provincial Government is sending a clarion call to all stakeholders to work with the government to address the scourge of corruption within our government systems. It is only when we work together, that we can move the Gauteng City Region forward.
Mduduzi Mbada is the Acting Director General in the Gauteng Provincial Government