The Covid-19 pandemic put everything to the test — from healthcare systems to supply chains to social safety nets. Hard decisions had to be made by all of us and our moral character was put to the test. 

Though most officials in government tried valiantly to rise to the Covid-19 challenge, unfortunately, some among us failed this test and brought the public service into disrepute. The public is justified in being outraged by those whose actions were not for the greater good and sought to enrich themselves during our biggest crisis yet. 

Equally outraged are ethical and hard-working public officials who are not only committed but who work tirelessly and relentlessly in their efforts to build an ethical civil service. Public Service Month is an opportune time for the civil service to redeem itself in the eyes of the public and fix the weaknesses that Covid-19 revealed.

As we close Public Service Month (September), a commemorated event under the theme Growing South Africa Together for an Ethical Public Service, South Africans have once again called on the leadership to urgently attend to the task of rebuilding the economy and to rescue the livelihoods of millions who have further been plunged into misery by the Covid-19 pandemic. This dream, the people have reminded us, will be deferred for as long as the public sector acts slowly on those who violate the principles of ethical governance and professionalism. 

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 provides for a Code of Conduct that outlines behaviour expected of Public Service Employees to fulfil 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 value-failures were revealed at the Life Esidimeni, SARS and the State Capture inquiries and most recently shocking corruption related to the procurement of PPEs for the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Given the above, there is therefore an obligation on government departments to actively manage ethics. The 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, behaviours, attitudes and values to practice accountable and transparent management.  

These programmes draw on different policies that provide the legislative framework for compliance and consequence management within government. Among key programmes which have been in the spotlight during this Public Service Month, is the suite of programmes that constitute ethics management in the public service. The goal is to emphasise and re-emphasise that all public servants, regardless of rank or level, are obliged to re-commit themselves to ethical behaviour and practices on a daily basis.  

Therefore, to give effect to the constitutional obligation for public service employees to uphold ethics and integrity, as well as to promote the Code of Conduct as contained in the Public Service Regulations, 2016,  the National School of Government in partnership with the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) and the Public Service Commission (PSC) developed and launched a compulsory online ethics course to ensure that we move forward on becoming a truly values-driven public sector. 

The course unpacks the Code of Conduct (Chapter 2 of the revised Public Service Regulations); helps officials recognise common ethical dilemmas as well as apply public service prescripts for ethical behaviour. One does not build a values-driven public sector merely by appealing to public servants to take the values more seriously. What is required is a focus on the entire system within which public servants operate and within which they are socialised into their professional roles and values. 

There needs to be a stable, professional system where values play a central role in keeping the focus on the common purpose. To achieve this common purpose, it is important for all officials to espouse these values and therefore imperative that they complete this course. 

Given the strategic significance of ethics and the enabling role training plays in professionalising government officials the NSG is offering the course for free on the open platform so that it can be accessed more easily. To date, the total number of officials who have enrolled for the course is 3542.

“Compulsory ethics courses (are) a step in the right direction but more is needed — professionals have to keep up with developments in governance and their area of expertise —nothing stands still. A true professional thus needs to commit to continuous professional development provided by the relevant professional body.” — Parmi Natesan CEO: Institute of Directors South Africa

Therefore, in support of the ethics in the public service programmes and to pursue accountable management more relentlessly, the NSG identified the need for public officials to also have the necessary knowledge and capability to manage the consequences of non-compliance as it happens in their workplaces. This topic is addressed throughout courses dealing with compliance with regulations. 

The negative effects of non-compliance and the lack of consequence management in the public sector are well known and it is well documented especially by the Auditor-General of South Africa Reports. The Auditor-General has during the last few years started to report on departments’ inability to manage consequences. 

In its 2016-17 report, the AGSA observed that there was a tangible regression in consequence management in departments and again urged government departments to take the appropriate actions based on the auditor’s investigations and findings. A keen finding was that instances of poor consequence management created susceptibility to fraudulent and corrupt practices.  

The AGSA further argues that accountability can be improved if there is a consistent and deliberate action against officials who intentionally, or negligently, commit acts of non-compliance with legislation or those who have been found guilty of misconduct or fraud. 

The PFMA and the MFMA and their regulations set out the specifications for such investigations into the abuse of supply chain management processes, irregular and fruitless expenditures and any assertions of financial misconduct. The Public Audit Amendment Act No 25 of 2004 was amended in April 2019 in an effort to strengthen the provisions made for consequence management in the PFMA and the MFMA. Government departments were entreated to pay attention to consequence management at last.

Taking cognisance of the AGSA reports, the NSG has taken proactive action in foregrounding the different responsibilities of the employees, line managers, risk managers, AA/AOs through a working relationship with internal and external auditing, and has instilled a programme of accountability and consequence management throughout the department in a manner in which the King III and IV report identifies as a “combined assurance” model.

What is consequence management?

Consequence management is generally understood to be coordinated legislated measures and activities to be undertaken by departmental management to address instances where there was non-compliance with the letter of the law. It is undertaken to alleviate the damage and loss incurred by the department and fundamentally restore and protect essential government services, products and assets.

 Why is consequence management needed?

Consequence management is needed as the lack thereof perpetuates the loss of state money resulting in inadequate funding for essential services, irregular and unauthorised expenditure and poor audit reports. One can further argue that consequence management is imperative to ensure that expenditure is recovered from those persons found liable in law for condoning of such expenditure.   

A far more serious adverse effect of the lack of consequence management is ultimately the loss of confidence in government’s ability to provide services, its ability to govern and pervading discourse of being labelled as corrupt. This serves to negate any gains achieved in other areas. For example, the well-planned response to the Covid-19 pandemic by this state which has even been lauded by the WHO, was marred by the widespread corruption of tender processes related to services and goods related to stemming the pandemic. 

Recently Twitter was ablaze with comments in response to the Principal of the NSG, some were positive and others negative, others even provided public insights for the NSG to act upon. Some twitter responses indicated a desire for the ethics course to be made available to elected officials as well eg the comment by @Ndlelantle3: “I hope the course can also be compulsory for elected public representatives.”  The NSG is proud to announce that it is soon to deliver programmes for Parliamentarians. 

Others openly shared how they uncovered or stood up to instances of corruption, e.g. @mpho: “Miraculously, R 7.5-million gets deposited into the government account from Hong Kong read the letter (below) I then get reprimanded by my then boss for reporting this to the audit com; NT and the Reserve Bank-question: where is this now?” Some understandably are doubtful whether these programmes will change anything, eg @jakkals90210: “Our taxes are paying for a course teaching leopards how to change their spots”. 

Consequent management and the law

Consequent management prescripts and the key role players are guided by different pieces of legislation and it is important for accounting authorities/officers and officials to continuously engage in professional development to update their existing knowledge and practices to ensure that they can execute consequence management within fair labour practices. 

A key challenge for consequence management is understanding the different role players and the applicability of the law in the disciplinary processes as well as the recovery processes. Understandably, there are expectations from the public to see quick results in these actions.  Yet, it is important to improve the success rate that proper processes have to be followed.  Maybe part of the PSC’s communication strategy in the future should be how progress on these matters are communicated readily to the public so that there is more tangible evidence of consequence management and accountability measures to the public. 

As the Minister of Public Service and Administration, Senzo Mchunu, rightly puts it, “Ethical conduct and organisational integrity are key in eradicating fraud and corruption in the public service. As the training arm of government, it is therefore imperative that the NSG implements this training programme that will equip public officials with the skills and competencies to make ethical decisions, to develop organisational integrity, to prevent fraud and combat corruption in the Public Sector”.  

It is also one of the ways of acknowledging the need to regain the public’s trust and to make the public service an employer of choice. The NSG and PSC pledge to build a public service which will uphold the highest moral values, integrity and ethics. We acknowledge that to create a public service that strives to promote and live out the values of professionalism, transparency, efficiency, accountability and responsiveness, we must be hard on corruption. 

As we engage more rigorously in our analysis of ethics and corruption, let us imagine a world that exists without corruption. Let us exercise leadership and judgement in the building of a world that rests on the principles of Ubuntu. This is not an impossibility — it must be our reality and the NSG and PSC pledge to mobilise all their capabilities to achieve this. DM