Programme Director, MEC Qedani Mahlangu,
The Speaker of the Gauteng Legislature, Honourable Ntombi Mekgwe,
Chairperson of the Kenya Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, Honourable Mumo Matemu,
The Gauteng Public Service Commission, Mr Mike Seloane,
Commissioner of the Competition Commission, Mr Thembinkosi Bonakele,
Members of the Executive Council,
Honourable Members of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature,
The Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Mpho Parks Tau, All Executive Mayors, Members of the Mayoral Committees, here presentLeaders of Religious Formations, Community Organisations, Trade Unions, Business, Women and Youth Sectors,
Directors-General and Heads of Departments,
Acting Provincial Commissioner of SAPS, Major-General Mosikili
Municipal Managers here present
Distinguished guests,
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen:
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of you for attending this, the first Gauteng Anti-Corruption Summit in the new term of the fifth administration.
The summit is convened under the theme; “Strengthening good governance and enhancing integrity in Gauteng”.
As we gather at this Summit, let us be reminded of the wise and enduring words of the first President and founding father of the independent Republic of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta who cautioned: “Our children may learn about the heroes of the past, our task is to make ourselves the architects of the future”.
I also like us to also heed the advice of one of the African proverbs which tells us that: “If you want to go quickly, go alone. However if you want to go far, go together”.
It is in keeping with these words that we have invited all of you, from different sectors of society in our province, so that we can walk far together in our effort to make ourselves the architects of a future free from corruption and many other pathologies that plague structures and processes of governance and business across the world.
It is my firm conviction that we can build a future free from corruption, only if we work together as reliable partners who are determined to win the war on corruption. Corruption is a crime against the poor and it has to be fought with all the weapons at our disposal.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my view that corruption is a systemic and societal problem that requires a comprehensive, holistic and united response and action by different sectors of society. I am confident that gathered here, are men and women who have the knowledge, expertise, desire and determination to win the war on corruption.
Coming few months after the start of the Fifth Administration in our province, the Gauteng Anti-Corruption Summit will not be a talk shop. As the ANC-led government, we have renewed plans to strengthen measures to build a culture of integrity and turn the tide against fraud and corruption.
These plans are detailed in the National Development Plan and 2014 ANC Election Manifesto and extensive outlined the details of our battle plan against corruption. During my inaugural State of the Province Address on 27th June this year, I outlined our provincial ten-pillar programme to radically transform, modernise and re-industrialise Gauteng (hereinafter referred to as the TMR).
In the same programme, I made an explicit commitment to build an activist, responsive and clean government and to enhance the integrity of the institutions and decision-making processes of government. In particular, I announced new measures to ensure that we do not only talk about fighting corruption but we act against corrupt government officials and businesspeople across our province.
What are these new measures?
As the fifth administration in Gauteng, we are taking decisive steps to introduce the following new measures:
- Firstly, we are strengthening anti-corruption units and setting up integrity management offices across government departments in our province so that we can enforce the declaration of interests. Introduce regulations and measures to prevent public servant or public official rom doing business with government. Public servants who don’t want to declare their interests or those who want to be business people should get out of the public service;
- Secondly, we are introducing greater transparency, greater public scrutiny and greater public accountability in the tender processes. On Monday, we will launch the pilot of a more open tender process starting with our Provincial Treasury, together with the Department of Roads and Transport;
- Thirdly, we are putting in place greater capacity monitor the pricing of materials, goods and other items procured by government in order to expose collusion amongst private sector companies, especially in the construction sector and food industry where government and ordinary citizens are severely ripped off due to price fixing. In this regard we look forward to working with the Competition Commission on this matter;
- Fourthly, we will also Black-list, publicly expose and prosecute all businesses that are involved in acts of bribery and corruption;
- 5. Lastly, we are strengthening civilian oversight on the law enforcement agencies with a specific focus on stemming out corruption and removing from these important institutions corrupt officers. We held a Safety Indaba last month in which I had an opportunity to meet all law enforcement agencies across our province to talk about, among others, the involvement of law enforcement officials in crime and corruption.
We have noted the three common concerns from the recent reports of the Public service Commission, the Auditor-General, Public protector and the 2013 Quality of Life Survey of the Gauteng City Region Observatory: 1) corruption is the first concern; 2) failure by senior public service managers to declare their interests is the second concern; 3) the high number of public servants who do business with government is the third area of concern.
The Twenty Year Review Report released by National Government notes that corruption impedes service delivery and development and it further undermines public confidence in the state and its institutions. We are indeed fully conscious of the reality that corruption robs especially the poor of essential services.
Hence we say is a crime against the poor!
Chairperson, this Summit is therefore an ideal platform for us as stakeholders to combine our efforts and resources in the fight against corruption.
We have also committed ourselves that we will continue to work with law enforcement agencies, the Public Service Commission, the Integrity Commissioner of the Legislature as well as Chapter 9 and 10 institutions to strengthen clean governance and enhance integrity across government department and institutions.
One of the key tasks we gave ourselves was to establish an integrity management office across government and the Premiers Office is leading in this regard. The establishment of this office is in line with Cabinet’s decision to improve the capacity of departments in the Public Service to fight and reduce corruption. Departments are required to create and promote an ethical organisational culture and to provide guidelines on how every member of the department should behave.
This intervention is important because, ethical conduct in the Public Service is a constitutional requirement and a cornerstone of sound governance and a core responsibility of those who hold office and serve our people.
We are required to appoint an “ethics champion” and “integrity champions” whose responsibilities are to drive ethics and anti-corruption initiatives.
We continue to respond as a matter of priority to all cases of alleged corruption reported through the Anti-corruption Hotline. To date we have resolved 58% of the total cases reported through the Hotline. Our immediate task is to increase this number significantly.
In this regard we will work hard to ensure that all reported cases of alleged corruption are investigated and maximum penalties are imposed.
Going forward, we will work with the national government, particularly the Department of Public Service and Administration, to consider the following:
- Inclusion of anti-corruption indicators in the performance contracts of all our line departments, particular our senior officials, Heads of Department and Director Generals. We hope that this will generate commitment in mainstreaming corruption prevention strategies. This will also enhance the level of transparency and accountability in our departments.
- Address operational challenges which include budgetary constraints, inadequate staff, establishing dedicated anti-corruption units within departments and low capacities in terms of skills for some departments as well as insufficient support from senior management within our departments.
- Recruiting qualified, competent, dedicated and experienced human resources to intensify the fight against corruption in the province. We want to make sure that we have a caliber of people of who have capacity to address challenges of corruption.
- Rewarding those who report cases of alleged corruption that are successfully investigated with the portion of money that has been recovered from the perpetrators. We will however guard against malicious reporting of cases. We will also ensure protection of whistle-blowers in our province to ensure that they are not victimised.
Programme Director, local government also has a role to play in fighting corruption in the province.
The latest Auditor-General’s Report on the Audit Outcomes of Local Government shows a significant improvement in the overall audit outcomes compared to the previous years. But the number of officials who do business with government is very high and this is a source of great concern to me.
Success stories in Gauteng are in the Sedibeng District Municipality for attaining a clean audit outcome; the Johannesburg Social Housing Company and Johannesburg Fresh Produce for maintaining their clean audit outcomes and the City of Johannesburg, Johannesburg City Power and Johannesburg Water which all improved to attain unqualified audit opinions.
The Auditor-General is attributing these improvements largely to strong drivers of internal controls being supported by commendable leadership and governance structures.
These success stories in municipalities should be used as a benchmark for the rest of the municipalities that are not improving on their audit outcomes.
Ladies and Gentlemen, one of the objectives of this Summit is to formally launch the multi-sectoral Gauteng anti-corruption forum. Let me take this opportunity to recognise the Forum’s Task Team members: Ms. Marie-Louise Moodie from the Office of the Premier, Mr. Azwianewi Malaudzi for the Gauteng Department of Finance; Mr. Peter Goss from the Black Business Council, Mr. Kris Dobie from the Ethics Institute of South Africa, Ms. Papadi Makhetha from the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements, Mr Neo Chaka from the Moral Regeneration Movement and Ms Nosisa Fubu from KPMG.
These dedicated men and women have ensured with their combined efforts that strategic documents that will make it possible for us to launch the Gauteng Anti-Corruption Forum are finalised on time.
On behalf of the all of us, I thank the Task Team members for a job well done.
Your willingness to share your experiences and knowledge is highly appreciated. As a result of your work we will be able to formally launch the Forum before the end of this session.
Programme Director, we look forward to the deliberations and the outcomes of this Summit, which will be incorporated to a revised Gauteng City Region Anti- Corruption Strategic Framework, that will be adopted by our provincial government.
Let us combine our efforts to work towards the national effort of zero tolerance for corruption by 2030. Together let’s move Gauteng and SA forward!
I wish you a successful Summit and look forward to the outcomes of the resolutions.
Thank you.
