City is committed to acting against corruption to build an ethical administration

24 May 2015

Corruption seems to be a fact of life in South Africa. Each day seems to bring with it some new headline of self-interested acts from those entrusted with responsibility but who abuse their positions of relative power. This is true of both the public and private sector.

As the civic leader of a city, there is not too much I can do about the practices of the private sector. Local government has limited authority over business practices and the regulation thereof is entrusted to numerous organs of state at the national level.

What I do know is that one should never condemn an entire sector generally – the vast majority of those in private businesses conduct themselves with integrity and according to high ethical standards.

If blanket assumptions about the private sector are wrong, then so too should be blanket assumptions about the public sector.

While it is true that some people in public service put their own selfish interests above the needs of the people that they are meant to be working for, this does not mean that everyone else in a public capacity should be equally condemned. For the most part, the organisation which I lead is staffed by those who put the interests of our residents first.

There is an interesting recent example of this ethos in practice. One of the members of our City Ombudsman’s Office recently abused his powers to defraud a resident in Bonteheuwel.

A woman was interested in buying a property that had recently become available in the area. She had been incorrectly advised that the representative of the Ombudsman’s Office would be able to assist her.

This official claimed that he could do so for a fee of R1 000. After a while, she had not seen any results and demanded action. He said this could be delivered for another R200, which she duly paid.

Of course, the official in question never had any authority to assist with property transactions. He also had absolutely no right to charge for any services he may have offered payable directly to him. He took advantage of a vulnerable resident and abused his relative position of power for his own ends.

The matter was reported to the City and we immediately mandated our Forensic Services Department to investigate. As soon as the offending official’s actions were uncovered, criminal charges were laid against him and disciplinary charges were prepared. The matter was successfully prosecuted and he recently received a sentence for four years imprisonment.

This is a great example of how corrupt individuals in public service can be uncovered and removed by a system that believes in prioritising the values of fairness, customer service, and ethics above all else. Indeed, we have made our approach to ethics in the City systematic and organisation-wide.

An Ethics Risk Assessment was conducted by EthicsSA during March to June of 2014. Survey responses were received, in addition to groups of interviews, which spanned all directorates and a range of hierarchy levels.

This risk assessment exercise culminated in an ethics risk profile (leveraging the threats and opportunities identified) for the City of Cape Town.

An Ethics Action Plan was drawn up, which is the basis of all interventions that are being rolled out under the Ethics Function in the short- and medium-term.

The City of Cape Town’s Forensics, Ethics and Integrity Department has embarked on various ethics, anti-corruption, hotline awareness and promotional campaigns to date – all of which are aligned with our goal to be a well-run city that is free from corruption.

All new employees receive ethics training at their inductions. The proactive forensic training initiatives of the Fraud Hotline and anti-corruption and related policies (Fraud Prevention Policy and Fraud Response Plan, Whistleblowing Policy) are also explained at the ethics awareness training induction sessions.

The electronic process for completing declaration of interest forms was rolled out in line with our requirement that all City employees are to complete declaration forms.

Indeed, departments across the City have been invited to attend presentation sessions on all anti-corruption initiatives in place in the City and the policies and legislation underpinning aforementioned topics, as well as the independent Fraud Hotline that is in place.

This is all part of the approach taken by a government which believes that public service should be conducted with integrity, transparency, and respect.

This requires a strong sense of ethics and an even stronger will to act when those ethics are violated. As we demonstrated with the case of the staff member from the Ombudsman’s Office, we will take the hard decision to make sure that our reputation, and our service offering, is never compromised. These are the actions of a clean and well-run city – and they are the actions of a leadership that has an unequivocal message: corruption will be found and it does not pay.

This article by Patricia de Lille first appeared in Cape Town This Week, the online newsletter of the Executive Mayor of Cape Town.