The Public Service Commission had decided against adopting a blacklisting approach to corruption in the public service because of the danger of litigation.

The Public Service Commission had decided against adopting a blacklisting approach to corruption in the public service because of the danger of litigation, the commission chairman Prof Stan Sangweni said during a parliamentary media briefing yesterday.

While the Tender Board Act made provision for blacklisting employees or tenderers found guilty of corruption, and the Public Finance Management Act and treasury regulations created the basis for a database of employees found guilty of corruption or fraud, the commission was concerned about the risk of litigation.

It had proposed that a number of measures be taken instead of blacklisting. These included a supplier procurement code, the conclusion of anticorruption pacts in all government contracts, a public information programme, a whistle-blowing facility and monitoring.

Most organisations had codes of conduct and whistle-blowing mechanisms. A review of the country’s anticorruption strategies found that SA had the necessary institutions to combat and prevent corruption.

The establishment of a single agency was not regarded as appropriate at this stage, Sangweni said, though there was room for better co-ordination and cooperation. Eight national departments had established hot lines, but many of them had insufficient resources.

The commission has recommended the establishment of a national hotline, backed with strong investigative capacity.

An assessment of the ethical infrastructure in the public and private sectors and civil society, had revealed the need for an ethics overhaul of all major public institutions throughout SA.

Senior managers in the public service, from director upwards, will be required to submit annual returns detailing their assets in a bid to prevent conflicts of interest emerging in their decision making. The commission would manage the asset register.

Sangweni said a survey of the qualifications of senior managers had found that while they were well qualified most of the qualifications were in the arts field, and they needed to acquire legal and commercial skills.

There was also a dearth of management skills in the service.

The commission believed performance management agreements with senior managers should give more emphasis to qualitative criteria instead of the quantitative criteria predominantly used in the past.

Performance management should be seen as a mechanism to contribute to service delivery improvement.

Managers should be held more accountable for the implementation of government policies with clear linkages between performance management and strategic objectives.

The commission found that while pockets of excellence existed, risk management was not fully integrated into strategic management processes.

Linda Ensor, Business Day (Johannesburg), August 22, 2002