Programme director
Honourable Premier of the Eastern Cape
Honourable Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality
Members of the Executive Council Present here today
Director-General of the Eastern Cape Provincial Government
Heads of departments present here today
Chairperson and Representatives of the Anti-corruption Coordinating Committee
Members of Provincial Anti-Corruption Coordinating Committees and related structures
Members of the public service corps
Ladies and gentlemen
I am pleased to be here with you as we discuss the extremely vexing but important issue of our fight against corruption. We assemble in this fashion in the windy city amidst the turbulence created by the recently released report of the Auditor-General. Anytime, anywhere and everywhere the release of the Auditor-General’s report is bound to attract attention.
But on Sunday 14 June, the country woke up to what must have been the most disturbing news in a long time. A well known and reputable newspaper reported on what it alleged was grand whole wholesale corruption in the tendering processes of the public service. With a screaming banner headline, ‘officials caught with snouts deep in trough.’
The paper reported that South Africa’s civil servants have scored more than half a billion rand in irregularly awarded government tenders. It claimed the tenders were awarded to companies owned by the civil servants themselves or those belonging to their spouses and relatives. According to the newspaper the report painted a bleak picture of an administration in shambles where corruption, misspending and flagrant abuse of public money is the order of the day.
The news article then gives details of the affected provinces leaving the reader in no doubt about the extent of the graft problem. The result is that an impression is created of poor and inept management and an utter lack of political oversight.
Programme director, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that this learning network could not have come at a better time. It affords us an opportunity, as government and devoted and dedicated anti-corruption activists, to reassess the implementation of our anti-corruption strategies.
Despite the fact that corruption in the eyes of many of our people appears to be deeply entrenched in the system and that it sometimes seems inevitable, we need to fight on and improve our efforts to tackle this problem. It is our duty to do so if we are to remain true to President Jacob Zuma’s call to hold ourselves to the highest standard of service, probity and integrity. We must raise a hand, raise a finger! Do anything, but we must never allow corruption to undermine our hard-won gains.
Phansi nge corruption must be our battle cry as we gather to revisit the implementation of anti-corruption strategies in the public sector and work out an integrated and holistic approach in our fight against the scourge.
We have no choice but to wage this war together if we aim to build a public service which upholds the highest moral values, integrity and ethics. If we aim to create a civil service that strives to promote and live out the values of professionalism, transparency, efficiency, accountability and responsiveness, we must be hard on corruption.
Democracy and successful governance are built on the foundation of a competent civil service. A public service comprise of people who always strive to deliver speedy, courteous and empowering services to all, regardless of race, colour or creed.
Believe me when I say there is no better platform for reviewing and revisiting our plans than this conference. It is ideally suited because it is a platform of sharing and learning from each other. We must learn from each other because I am the first one to agree that there are some frameworks that have worked. There are some departments that have been very successful in implementing the public sector anti-corruption strategy of 2002.
There are some provinces that have done remarkable work in the field of anti-corruption. Allow me to mention a few. The provincial government of the North West has done wonders in communication and awareness campaigns. The provincial government of Mpumalanga is doing a great job in investigating cases of corruption.
Colleagues, as we revisit our implementation of anti-corruption strategies we need to pay particular attention on the four aspects that make for an effective anti-corruption agenda. They are prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution. When we go back to our respective provinces and departments after this conference, we need to have identified our areas of strength and weakness so that we can continue to grow and identify areas of weakness, so that we can improve.
On this occasion of the second Anti-corruption Learning Network, I am again compelled to express my pleasure at being part of a public service that is caring towards the citizens. A public service that is highly committed to stop corruption in all structures and systems of government. The public service that we are aiming to build is a public service that is deeply rooted in the principles of Batho Pele. A public service that is not only caring but efficient and geared towards service delivery.
The story of the public service is the story of South Africa. Through the nature, shape and attitude of our public servants, people should be able to tell the story of South Africa. When they tell that story they will say just as our icon former President Mandela once said, “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”
South Africa, together with its public service, has travelled a long way. Guided by the policy of Batho Pele we have managed to walk our talk as far as providing service delivery to our people is concerned. But we acknowledge that even here there is room for improvement. Yes, there are blockages in our service delivery agenda. This is evidenced by the reality that in some parts of the country our people are expressing their dissatisfaction about the quality and the pace of our service delivery through mass action.
One just has to look at the conditions under which the majority of our citizens live to be reminded of the fact that ours is a journey everlasting, ours is a journey to social, economic and political emancipation.
Colleagues, the road we are travelling has seen many leaders of our times. The giants of the South African struggle for emancipation such as Yusuf Dadoo, Helen Suzman, Lillian Ngoyi, Bram Fischer, OR Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, and many more have in the past been on this very road we are on today.
In their quest for social freedom and equality they did not once falter nor did they ever betray their beliefs. I want to assure those like them who are no more that neither will, this generation of public servants, falter. We all know what is expected of us and we shall do all in our power to ensure that we deliver on the expectations of our people.
Honourable Premier, for the public service to be geared towards service delivery there should be zero tolerance on corruption. To demonstrate our collective will to expedite the processes of delivering services to our people we should all speak with one voice in condemning corruption and corrupt activities. But talk alone will not bear the necessary results; it is against our action that we will be measured.
The Anti-Corruption Learning Network provides a platform for anti-corruption practitioners in the public sector to share experiences, knowledge and other good practices. It is in forums like these where our skills and knowledge will be sharpened. During the launch of this forum last year we had said we will treat this learning network as our Agora.
The Anti-corruption Learning Network as the Agora
Ladies and gentlemen, somewhere at the heart of the Greek city of Athens lies a place called Agora. Agora means a gathering place. It is a place where people, especially merchants used to gather to exchange and examine ideas and ideals. Most of you would remember that Athens is the cradle of the first genuine democracy. Agora is a place where grand concepts were conceived to define morals, create communities and build empires.
The Anti-corruption Learning Network shall be our Agora as we venture into the journey to understand the ideals of restoring virtues and morals to our society. Fighting corruption is about restoring and safeguarding virtue in our society.
The Anti-corruption Learning Network is the forum where vibrant ideas will be exchanged. Our public sector needs all sorts of creative and innovative ideas to implement our anti-corruption measures. The wealth of knowledge that is going to flow from each one of us here should enable us to seek for excellence. Business unusual implies that we all strive for excellence. Excellence requires that all of us share ideas and test them out to see if they work. If they work best for us, we must of course share them with our fellow practitioners to advance excellence.
Evolution of the Anti-Corruption Learning Network (ACLN)
The idea of a learning network was conceived during the review of the public service anti-corruption strategy that was adopted by Cabinet in 2002. While this idea was being incubated, we took the initiative to ensure that the anti-corruption coordinating committee was strengthened to drive the learning network. The anti-corruption coordinating committee is now very much ready to take forward this initiative.
The learning network should be seen as one part of the many other initiatives to encourage learning, training and development in the area of anti-corruption. The anti-corruption coordinating committee has completed the informational portal, which is housed in the website of the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA). There will be an ongoing process of interaction and engagement to make this initiative a true example of good practice in the public sector.
The theme of the first learning network was “increasing capacity to fight corruption in the public sector and this year we are aiming to go one higher in that this year we are planning to revisit the implementation of anti-corruption strategies in the public sector.
The choice of this year’s theme is indicative of the growth and the evolution of this forum. Ladies and gentleman, I can stand before you today and safely say that indeed we are on track with achieving the objective we had set ourselves when we launched this network in 2008. Our fundamental objective was to create a learning space for anti-corruption practitioners in the public sector, where experiences and knowledge can be exchanged.
This still remains our objective and to further move towards the attainment of this objective during the course of 2010/11 we will be launching a virtual learning forum. This forum will provide an opportunity for anti-corruption practitioners to interact with each other 24 hours a day and seven days a week wherever they may be in South Africa. This is one of the innovations that we will be including in our anti-corruption tool kit.
Cabinet has in the past instructed all departments and organisational components in the public service to comply with the minimum anti-corruption capacity requirements. This instruction comes as a result of the realisation that some departments and institutions in the public service are not complying with these requirements.
I strongly believe that the learning network shall have a huge contribution towards assisting departments to comply with the requirements. I once more urge you to take this opportunity to learn from each other and see how we can accelerate implementation of all our policy directives. It is about time that we begin to see the results of our efforts to eradicate corruption in the public sector.
In moving towards a single public service, we will also ensure that we interact with colleagues at local government, using the Anti-corruption Learning Network to enhance all efforts to curb corruption at this sphere of government. Programmes aimed at fighting corruption should take into account that anti-corruption initiatives at local government are fairly new. Local government is situated at the very point where service delivery is taking place. It is very crucial that we make sure that all loopholes are tightened.
Equally, the network must evolve and expand to incorporate the anti-corruption good practice of and participation by the hundreds of public entities that are the providers of key services to citizens. We are currently exploring the possibility of opening this opportunity to our social partners in the fight against corruption, which is the private sector and non-governmental organisation (NGOs).
Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD)
We as government have also to acknowledge that one of the ways in which we can assist in the fight against corruption is by ensuring that our public servants are properly remunerated. Looking after our own will be top priority for this administration.
Honourable Premier, we all, as public servants, have a responsibility to our country and citizens. But balanced against that responsibility is the right to be remunerated properly. This government takes remuneration of its servants very seriously and that can be seen through the speed with which we worked to resolve the OSD for professionals. I can safely say today that we have signed agreements with most of the unions and by this weekend we will announce closure to this matter.
We undertake as government to move with the same speed in concluding salary negotiations for levels 1 to 12. However, we appeal to our public servants to be very mindful of the economic situation we find ourselves in when putting forward their demands.
At the beginning I said government has a difficult responsibility of managing competing claims for limited resources and this is indeed true. However, we want to state for the record that as we have been engaging with organised labour we have been doing so in good faith because we know that a speedy agreement is in all our best interest.
I therefore urge all of you to engage on the issues to be discussed during the next two days with confidence knowing that your government cares about you and has your best interest at hear. I also want to urge all of you to go back to your respective posts and implement the policies that have been developed, starting with ensuring that your departments comply with the minimum anti-corruption capacity requirements. The DPSA will always be ready and willing to assist when requested.
Ladies and gentlemen, the fight against corruption is not my fight or her fight or his fight or even their fight it is indeed our fight and working together we can eradicate corruption in the public sector.
With corruption beaten I have no doubt that service delivery will improve and with corruption beaten I have no doubt that the principles of Batho Pele, putting people first, will reign supreme in our public service.
Our journey has been a very arduous one and it promises to be longer and tougher still but I am confident that with this generation of public servants we will not fail nor will we falter in our historical mission, of improving the lives of all our people.
The road ahead is long. We owe it to our children to put an end to corruption. That is why we must try together, by every effective method, to overcome corruption in our government system and make it work more reliably to provide basic services to the whole of our people.
This is a shared responsibility, not one borne by the government alone. It means that all of us, whether we work in the government or in private business or in the informal sector, have to think harder about what we can do for our nation’s development.
Let us strive to find workable solutions. On our part we are going to conduct an assessment on the common manifestation of corruption in our public service in terms of nature, sector of occurrence and geographical spread of such occurrences. We will identify the common perpetrators of acts of corruption in the form of position, area of location as well as area of deployment.
We are going to analyse the impact of the national anti-corruption strategies in the public service through evaluating the effectiveness of the national anti-corruption forums as well as the implementation of the three national anti-corruption summits we have held so far. We hope to conclude this by the end of November.
I wish to express my appreciation to the Eastern Cape Provincial Government for being such a wonderful host and for the hospitality. I also wish to express my appreciation to all present here for being part of this event we hope to see you again next year. We are presented with a platform where we can listen and learn about some of our best practices in the public sector. I trust that when you walk away tomorrow you do so knowing there is a rich and competent network of likeminded public officials that you can revert to when you want advice and support in your daily tasks.
I would also like to thank all the presenters who have agreed to share their experiences and knowledge with the rest of us. I want to emphasise that all lessons, whether negative or positive, are equally important. I trust that we will do our best to make this initiative a success and hopefully the Learning Network will grow from strength to strength each year.
I have raised some comments which I hope will stimulate further discussion on how to build the nation while reducing and finally eliminating corruption for the benefit of everyone. Let us leave the world a better place for our children.
Thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
30 July 2009
Source: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
(http://www.ecprov.gov.za/)
