Cutting corruption with practical initiatives to foster a culture of ethics and integrity

Corruption is a societal malaise that has wreaked havoc within South Africa’s public institutions. Its destructive quality has had a harrowing effect on a range of critical public institutions that provide important goods and services to the public. Its cataclysmic effects have left some of South Africa’s once treasured and renowned institutions shells of themselves, hollowing their operational functionality and capacity. 

Government departments, law enforcement agencies and state-owned institutions and agencies such as the South African Revenue Service, Independent Development Trust, Eskom and South African Airways have felt the sting of prolonged acts of malfeasance that have had a detrimental consequence on their ability to provide goods and services to the public. 

Recourse to this turpitude has often been seen in protracted litigation, which has produced notable judgments responding to the calamitous nature and consequences of corruption that has undermined our constitutional democracy. Over and above court judgments, numerous efforts by the government have been made to unravel and probe the extent of malfeasance within state institutions, through commissions of inquiries. 

The most notable of these was the Zondo (State Capture) Commission, and now the recently established Madlanga Commission, probing allegations of criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system.

The above efforts, though commendable, suffer from a reactionary premise, which is often ineffective at dismantling the root cause of corruption. These efforts serve as responses to the often catastrophic consequences arising from derelict and corrupt activities, but fail to address the causal nature of corruption, which is necessary to prevent them from reoccurring. 

A holistic understanding of the elemental properties of corruption would reveal that implementing strong and well executed systems within public institutions that prevent corruption is necessary. Effective anticorruption efforts are aimed at fostering a culture of accountability, ethics and transparency. This is what public institutions sorely lack.

Importance of educational initiatives and ethics champions

Perhaps the most important element in fostering and engendering a culture of anticorruption is shoring up existing educational initiatives that empower people with the knowledge and the importance of ethics and proper conduct in workplaces. 

These initiatives are critical at filling the knowledge gap regarding conduct and practices that are regarded as corrupt and untoward. Such training is suggested through the entire value chain of an organisation, from management to ordinary staff members. An assessment of these initiatives through regular assessing and evaluation is recommended to ensure a proper, uniform understanding of ethics standards. Frequent appraisals to ensure that content is fit for purpose and context suitable is further recommended. 

These initiatives are important at an institutional level to ensure that a consistent organisational approach against corruption is adopted. However, similar educational initiatives should further be introduced at an earlier stage. Education of ethics should be introduced and be mandatory teaching at primary, high school and tertiary levels. Inculcating ethical values at an early stage beds down a mindset and attitude of ethics and good conduct, which has the potential to serve as a lifelong moral compass. Such early intervention has the potential to shape hostile views about corruption.

Empowering people and the relevant stakeholders with knowledge of corruption cannot, however, be achieved without people within an organisation who are committed to embodying and promoting ethical and anticorruption values. Public institutions should promote ethics champions, who would help create a unified understanding of what such ethical values mean. This would in turn help entrench a culture of ethics and integrity, incentivising people to comply accordingly. 

Disclosure, vetting policies and non-compliance sanctions

It is important to introduce new rules and policies that encourage and promote anti-corruption measures and efforts, and to confer “ethics champions” with the responsibility of enforcing them. Policies and rules that are more onerous than existing laws, accompanied by enhanced techniques and strategies that encourage compliance, would create a strong message against corrupt activities within public institutions. 

Creating clear rules that equally apply to everyone would send a message that no one is above the law. Practical anticorruption policies must include policies compelling the vetting and accreditation of all new recruits, particularly those who occupy critical positions in key public institutions. 

Policies that encourage the disclosure of corruption and bribery offences and assets as well as those that mandate lifestyle audits are especially encouraged. They could serve as an “integrity test” to ascertain a candidate’s past compliance with non-negotiable ethical standards that are mandatory for leadership. 

Such an integrity test would help discern the key factors that drive and motivate potential leaders and whether they display an affinity towards corruption. Every institution should be given discretion at carving out the precise contours of non-negotiable virtues that leaders and employees should embody. However, disclosure requirements should always be included. 

Discovery of past indiscretions should serve as an immediate bar to occupying leadership positions. Alternatively, adequate sanctions should be meted out to those who fall short, which may include fines or imprisonment. Broader legislation giving effect to such targeted policies are encouraged to give bite to such internal policies. 

People who occupy critical positions in key public institutions should have a higher burden of disclosure, given the far-reaching nature of their powers. 

Such measures serve not only important practical purposes in the fight against corruption, but equally carry important symbolic meaning, that communicates a message that corruption will not be tolerated, incentivising people to resist engaging in this vice in the first place. 

The public should have access to information pertaining to leaders of critical public institutions and politicians who have the monumental task of serving public interests. This includes access to information on assets, qualifications and past offences, whether of a criminal and non-criminal nature. 

Legislation and targeted policy reform that give effect to this, similar to the Political Party Funding Act, which compels political parties to disclose the sources of their funding, is envisaged. Again, the transparency and accountability channel enabled by such access would decrease suspicious conduct that goes undetected. This, in turn, would incentivise a culture of propriety and compliance. 

This would yield valuable information dividends about public officials, leading to a more informed society. Harnessing the reach and power of technology, in developing digitalisation frameworks that enhances such access to information, is advised. 

Fostering a culture of transparency and integrity

Strategies, action targets and systems are futile in the absence of a culture of transparency and integrity that sends a stark message that corruption won’t be tolerated. The importance of strong and inspiring leadership that models these virtues cannot be overstated. 

A top-level observance of integrity, honesty and ethical standards encourages similar behaviour, creating a positive ripple effect. Corruption and the apathetic culture that enables it have more to do with the attitude that CEO’s and board directors have towards corruption, than they do with the middle men and filler hacks who often serve as scapegoats. 

Fostering a culture that is averse to corruption is critical in cutting the flow through which corruption takes hold and germinates. Fostering and nurturing a clean and transparent culture is non-negotiable, and efforts at reconfiguring already eroded cultures need to be the top priority in remedial and preventive strategies. 

But how exactly does one begin the mammoth task of reshaping ethically defunct cultures that have become breeding grounds for improper conduct within public institutions? The starting point is getting rid of corrupt leaders who have been found to be wanting in terms of of the high threshold of propriety required.

Contrary to populist rhetoric, and the waning perception South Africans understandably have of their leaders, people want to work, cooperate and be led by ethical leaders. It is important that we get this first step right. Leaders need to want to be ethical. 

This can be done by reframing crucial decisions taken within the prism of ethics instead of through business or management decisions. Leaders and institutions, broadly, need to elevate conversations to focus on making ethical decisions — as a priority — instead of decisions that serve to only benefit the bottom line. 

Ethical considerations need to form a core component of decision-making, and should be included in every step of the decision-making process. This requirement compelling ethical considerations should further extend to all employees. Entrenching ethics compliance in employees and leaders’ Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) could serve as a powerful mechanism for measuring and incentivising adherence to ethical compliance. 

In addition, it is important to create a culture of predictability regarding how things are done and how services are delivered. This fosters a responsibility for accountability that is difficult to circumvent, should regular processes be evaded. 

In an already compromised culture, leaders, in conjunction with their leadership teams, must confront the onerous task of readjusting and in some instances rewriting the rules of what an integrity-driven culture looks like. This message must come from the leader who set the tone for everyone else to follow. 

Conversations on what it means to do clean business should permeate an embattled organisation. Importantly, state-of-the-art compliance systems mirroring best international practice need to be continuously developed, and applied actively and consistently. Improving internal strategies, due diligence methods and incorporating technology to make systems more robust are all means to counteract and prevent historical patterns of malfeasance from resurfacing. 

Scaling up existing practices and undertaking ambitious reforms would create new norms of openness that are intended to form part of the new culture of integrity and transparency.

Enhancing whistleblower protection

Whistleblowers are critical in stimulating and creating a pipeline response to injurious acts of malfeasance. Enhancing protection for whistleblowers and promoting a culture of whistleblowing is, therefore, critical in maintaining this pipeline response to corruption and stimulating resistance to it. 

There is often a stigma and fear attached to whistleblowing, flowing from flawed societal perceptions and the sting felt by the harrowing consequences that brave whistleblowers have had to endure. Ostracisation, blacklisting and threats sometimes leading to death are some of the deleterious consequences that whistleblowers have faced for doing the right thing. This is in addition to the devastating psychological torment they often endure. 

Providing psychosocial, physical, legal and financial protection for whistleblowers is necessary to insulate them from retaliation. 

Civil society organisations have done a commendable job at shouldering this burden, but these efforts need to be further inculcated within public institutions and organisations. Such an initiative sends a comforting message to employees that encourages whistleblowing. 

In a patriarchal society that privileges the interests and security of men, the devastating effects that flow from whistleblowing tend to disproportionately affect women. The stupefying murder of public servant Babita Deokaran is a harrowing example of this. It is imperative that public institutions carve out a whistleblowing protection regime that also caters to women. 

Whistleblowing needs to be affirmed and viewed as a positive thing. Incentivising whistleblowing through financial reward is particularly advised as it would achieve multiple benefits. It would not only encourage a whistleblowing culture, but would further provide the financial protection whistleblowers so desperately need. It could be subject to the financial recovery flowing from whistleblowing efforts. 

Corruption is a cancer that leads to not only anti-development and democratic backsliding, but is a propellent of modern slavery. Its wide-ranging and far-reaching effects have led to severe incursions on human dignity for those who feel its hard-hitting impacts the most. Corruption’s cascading effects are disproportionately felt by the poorest. 

If we choose to insulate ourselves against the effects that corruption inflicts on our public institutions, we might not find them there when we need them. It is, therefore, incumbent on everyone to join in the fight against corruption and restore integrity and ethics within our public institutions. DM

Lindo Hadebe is a public lawyer and researcher based in Johannesburg. He currently works as a researcher at the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law, a centre of the University of Johannesburg. His research interests lie in constitutionalism, human rights and anti-corruption law.