P Gillingham: Opening ceremony of ethics management and anti-corruption
training programme

5 July 2006

Programme Director,
Chief Deputy Commissioners
Deputy Director-General of SAMDI
Senior Management of Correctional Services and SAMDI
Course participants,
Media representatives here present, and
Ladies and gentlemen

It is indeed refreshing and encouraging to be part of this opening ceremony
of the ethics management and anti-corruption training programme of Correctional
Services, representing my Minister, Deputy Minister and National Commissioner.
It is encouraging because it marks an important milestone in our efforts to
build a secure and ethical correctional system in South Africa that enjoys the
confidence of our stakeholders and the public.

We are acutely aware that without public confidence, delivering on our core
mandate of ensuring a secure and safe custody with an enabling environment for
effective rehabilitation of offenders will almost be an impossible task.

Delivering his first budget vote speech as Minister of Correctional Services
exactly two-years and 20 days ago, Minister Ngconde Balfour said:

“We need to be turning around the public perception that we are an
organisation fraught with indiscipline, corruption and lack of work ethic. ...
We will pursue all avenues.... to ensure the cleansing of the Department of
Correctional Services (DCS) of corruption and bad management.”

He emphasised that this would not be achieved through stunts, but by a
profoundly ethical manner “our managers and officials” behaved in relation to
all beneficiaries of our services including offenders, other members, family
members, service providers and ordinary members of the public. The commitment
of the Minister does not mean we are oblivious to the challenge of turning
around an entrenched culture of corruption, secrecy and manipulation that
characterised the South African prison system under apartheid.

Our submission is that any report on the issue of fraud and corruption needs
to take into account the strides made during the first decade of freedom, and
new challenges of taking our fight against fraud and corruption to a new
trajectory during the second decade of freedom.

The constitutional, legal and policy framework established after the
attainment of freedom, helped in creating an enabling environment nationally
and even inside of our correctional facilities for the blowing of the whistle
against the scourge of fraud and corruption. In addition various institutions
were established to ensure a greater sense of responsibility, accountability
and improved work ethic, with steps continuously taken to improve co-ordination
and alignment of systems and processes aimed at fighting corruption and
achieving good governance.

In reflecting on the Minister's commitment to cleanse the system of 'bad
apples', we need to periodically ask ourselves the big question: are we winning
the battle against the scourge of fraud and corruption?

I submit that we are winning this battle, but hasten to say the road ahead
remains arduous and long. Since the institution of the Jali Commission to
investigate fraud and corruption in correctional centres, significant progress
has been made by the Department which includes:

* Improvement of institutional capacity within Correctional Services through
the establishment of a Departmental Investigation Unit (DIU) and Code
Enforcement Directorate, while also strengthening partnerships and alignment of
operations of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), Police and the Directorate
of Special Operations;

* Improvement of the departmental policy framework to customize
interventions and enable effective fighting of fraud and corruption with
Anti-corruption and Whistle Blowing policies adopted and progressively
implemented;

* Our anti-corruption strategy has been rolled out inclusive of an
anti-corruption hotline which registered a 33% increase in cases reported
between 2004 and 2005, clearly demonstrating increased confidence in the
system;

* Tightening of internal controls with an internal audit function
established while an integrated approach was adopted in dealing with risks
facing the department;

* The piloting of information and communication technologies to enhance
security at Centres of Excellence and other 30 high risk facilities (closed
circuit television [TV] system) is proving the wisdom of riding the crest of
the technology wave right. Increasingly, more cases are picked up for
investigation and disciplinary processes with quicker turn around times;

* There is greater awareness, more reporting, more convictions, more
dismissals and more recoveries of public resources and funds. For example in
the last financial year alone the following was registered:

- Through internal processes, 36 hearings were concluded with 20 dismissed,
14 receiving final written warnings and two being found not guilty.

- Incidents of escapes went down by 90.3% while incidents of
offender-on-offender violence decreased by 87% over the past 10 years
nationally.

- Externally, working in partnership with the SIU, millions were recovered
by the Asset Forfeiture Unit from over 25 medical practitioners some of whom
have appeared in court.

These are indeed phenomenal achievements registered through improved
delivery and alignment of various interventions aimed at building a secure and
ethical correctional system that is the pride of our nation.

Sustaining these trends is a mammoth challenge, because we still witness
smuggling of illegal substances into our correctional facilities, including
murderous weapons like guns. The recent high profile escape from Middledrift
Correctional Centres of two life-serving offenders, after our officials
smuggled a white plastic whose contents are assumed at this stage to have been
the weapons used, graphically represents the real challenge.

We believe 'prevention is better than cure', and therefore the real
challenge is the prevention of corruption, fraud, theft and other
irregularities that include recruitment fraud, aiding of escapes, procurement
irregularities, theft of state property, medical aid fraud, and manipulation of
financial systems. These will not be tolerated because they manifest in poor
delivery, in compromising the core mandate of the department, which is the safe
custody and rehabilitation of offenders as a critical contribution to public
safety.

It is this reality that informed our emphasis on the training and
development element of the anti-corruption strategy and the partnership we have
struck with the South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI).

A survey conducted by Ernst and Young in 2003 revealed that 85% of fraud is
committed by insiders with managers accounting for 55% and workers accounting
for 30%. We are also conscious of the estimates that about 90% of cases of
fraud go unreported. Under these circumstances one cannot rely on reactive
mechanisms of fighting fraud and corruption, but on addressing ethical
foundations that create a propensity for one to commit fraud. With this
programme we hope to build a competent and ethical cadre of managers and
officials who will constitute a bedrock for launching our moral rebuilding
programmes that will touch every single official, so that together we can say
in one voice - NO TO FRAUD AND CORRUPTION IN CORRECTIONAL SERVICES.

We are continuing to pave a clear way to our secure and ethical correctional
system with the following plans in place:

* A Relationship Building by Objectives model adopted by Management, Police
and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) and the Public Service Association
(PSA) has profoundly shifted the paradigm of labour relations management in
correctional services.

* An internal Code of Conduct and a Disciplinary Code have been
significantly changed by agreement in the Departmental Bargaining Chamber and
will be re-launched in due course to enhance our strategy to deal with
un-ethical conduct with each official signing a pledge to uphold the ideals
enunciated in these documents.

* Plans for implementing the recommendations of the Jali Commission are
underway, with possible additional capacity sourced for speedily concluding
cases.

In answering the big question I raised earlier, I can confidently say we are
winning the battle against fraud and corruption and that our programme of
building a secure and ethical correctional system that is a bastion against
crime in our society is firmly on course, with an overwhelming majority of our
managers and officials being at the forefront.

I trust that you will find the course reviving your good value system and
fulfilling your inner desires for a better life for all.

I declare the programme officially opened.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Correctional Services
5 July 2006
Source: SAPA