Anti-Corruption Hotline and an Audit of Government's Poverty Reduction
Programmes
13 June 2007
Over the years, the Public Service Commission (PSC) has been producing
reports that have evolved to mark themselves as valuable overviews of public
service performance in South Africa. Today, the PSC is pleased to announce the
release of a report on Measuring the Effectiveness of the National
Anti-Corruption Hotline as well as an Audit of Government's Poverty Reduction
Programmes and Projects.
Measuring the Effectiveness of the National Anti-Corruption Hotline
At the request of Cabinet, the PSC has been managing the National
Anti-Corruption Hotline (NACH) for the public service since September 2004. The
Hotline (0800 701 701), which is toll-free and operates 24 hours a day and
seven days a week, provides members of the public with as well as public
servants with an easily accessible instrument to report corruption in the
public service. This report reflects on the effectiveness of the hotline. It
also provides a statistical analysis of cases of alleged corruption reported to
the NACH in respect of national and provincial departments.
Statistical overview
Between 1 September 2004 and 30 November 2006, a total of 4 182 cases of
alleged corruption were reported to the NACH. After an evaluation of the cases,
the PSC found that only 2 296 related to corruption. A considerable number 1
105 cases related to service delivery. The Hotline also received cases that
fell out of the public service mandate as well as grievances by public
servants. The number of cases received has over the years increased gradually.
On average, 82 cases are reported per month. The majority of whistleblowers
(60%) that lodge cases on the Hotline prefer to remain anonymous.
Nature of cases reported
Most of the cases 320 reported related to unethical behaviour by public
servants. These include abuse of power and non-compliance with official working
hours. Given the efforts by government to instil a high level of professional
ethics in the public service, this is a concern to the PSC. It appears that
public servants may not have been adequately informed about the requirements of
the Code of Conduct for the Public Service.
Other cases that were frequently reported include procurement irregularities
(234), abuse of government vehicles (233), mismanagement of school funds and
irregularities around the allocation of subsidy houses.
Handling of cases by departments
In general, the feedback from departments on cases referred to them for
further investigation is frustratingly slow. Out of 2 296 cases referred to
departments, feedback was received on only 830 cases. It has become evident
that departments have limited investigative capacity. Despite concerns
regarding slow feedback, the Hotline has achieved tangible results. For
instance, in Limpopo, a total of 20 officials have already been dismissed for
corrupt practices. In addition, by 30 November 2006, a total of 17 officials
across the public service were on suspension for suspected corrupt
behaviour.
Recommendations
Functioning of the Hotline will improve if departments can apply principles
contained in the NACH Toolkit published by the PSC. Training of officials on
the contents of the NACH Toolkit should be implemented by all departments.
Departments must either reprioritise within existing budgetary allocations to
bolster their investigative capacity or seek additional funding from national
or provincial treasuries.
Departments must conduct thorough risk assessments to identify areas where
internal controls need to be strengthened. The Report also recommended that
departments apply conflicts of interest policies particularly in the area of
supply chain management in order to prevent corruption and fraud. Most
importantly, departments should not wait for institutions such as the PSC to
promote professional ethics amongst their staff. They have a responsibility to
ensure that a culture of ethical behaviour is created and maintained.
An Audit of Government's Poverty Reduction Programmes and Projects
With the advent of democracy in 1994, one of the governmentâs key priorities
was to eradicate poverty. Now, more than a decade later, poverty still remains
a challenge. Nonetheless, apart from the social security programmes which are
currently major instruments for redressing poverty, both national and
provincial departments have been implementing a broad range of interventions to
address poverty.
Although these programmes have largely been allocating funds to the neediest
sectors in the country, the impact of some of them has still been limited,
especially amongst the ultra poor. Concerns that have been raised about these
programmes include poor co-ordination, poor integration of service delivery,
lack of proper processes, exclusionary practices and a lack of monitoring and
evaluation.
The PSC therefore decided to undertake a series of evaluations of
government's poverty reduction programmes. In preparation for such an
evaluation, the PSC first undertook an audit of poverty reduction programmes
and projects (as a first phase of the project). The aim of the audit was to
gain a better understanding of the definitions and criteria used to describe
poverty and the interventions implemented to address it.
The Audit notes that assessments of progress made in reducing poverty tend
to be defused by different definitions of poverty. Nonetheless, government
policy recognises the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, as evidenced by its
attempts to address poverty in various ways.
A major challenge during the Audit was that no central national database of
poverty reduction projects and programmes existed before. Furthermore, both
projects and programmes did not have sets of unique numbers to distinguish them
from one another; which means it was difficult to pick up duplicate projects in
the database and to do comparative analyses of projects and programmes from one
year to another. Eventually a database of more than 40 programmes that
contained more than 29 900 projects was produced. However, many more important
national and provincial programmes could have been incorporated if support from
some departments was forthcoming.
In selecting criteria for categorisation of projects and programmes, two
issues were considered. In the first instance, that the categorisation should
lend itself to future monitoring and evaluation and in the second instance,
that it should resonate with the way that decision makers see their various
endeavours. The first approach defines programmes by the type of poverty that
they address (i.e. income, capability, asset, special needs and social
insurance). The second approach simply defines programmes based on the existing
programme interventions (i.e. social security, free basic service, subsidised
services, housing, land reform, income generating and public works).
Ultimately, the key issue is to ensure that departments demonstrate the
capacity to design, plan, implement and monitor these programmes in such a
manner that they achieve their objectives. Most importantly, there is need for
national strategy as well as norms and standards for the implementation of
poverty reduction programmes that has been identified. Only when these
programmes are conducted in a comprehensive, coherent and co-ordinated
framework will government succeed in achieving its development goals.
The PSC will continue to monitor the performance of the South African public
service and through its reporting generate a broader discussion and debate in
the good governance and service delivery discourse.
Enquiries:
Humphrey Ramafoko
Director: Communication and Information Services
Tel 012 352 1196
Cell: 082 782 1730
Kabelo Ledwaba
Deputy Director: Communication
Tel: 012 352 1070
Cell: 082 952 0460
Issued by: Public Service Commission
13 June 2007
Source: Public Service Commission (http://www.psc.gov.za)
