Transcript Slide 1

ETHICS AND INTEGRITY IN LOCAL
GOVERNMENT.
BY
PROF. DR THAKHATHI
UNIVERSITY OF FORT HARE
INTRODUCTION
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The South African government is facing a lot of
challenges with regards to ethical behaviour and
integrity in the entire public sector. Many cases
of unethical conduct and those which lack
integrity have destroyed the trust and public
confidence in the Public Service especially the
local government level. Mayors, Councillors and
other officials were found wanting in the areas of
ethical conduct and integrity.
The capacity to promote and maintain a high
standard of ethics in accordance with chapter 10
of the constitution does not bring good news to
the citizens of this country. We read daily in
newspapers many cases of unethical behaviour
which has become a threat to our young
democracy.
GOOD GOVERNANCE
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According to Kotze (1998:15), “the
effectiveness of the government and
the participation of inhabitants in it
are what constitute good
governance”.
According to Kotze (1998:15), “the
effectiveness of the government and
the participation of inhabitants in it
are what constitute good
governance”.
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“efficiency and rationality in allocating
resources, in other words sensible priorities;
curbing corruption which is strangling
development and inhibiting investment;
enhancing legitimate freedoms, of
association, of speech, of press, of above all
the individual;
the rule of law, and so an unfiltered judicial
system;
guarantee of civil and human rights;
transparency – making information and
statistics readily available and
accountability to people”.
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Stevenson (1952) argued that “even
more important than winning the
election is governing the nation
which is the test for a political party.
When the tumult and the shouting
die, when the bands are gone and
the lights are dimmed, there is the
stark reality of responsibility”
(Starling, 1993:1).
SOME ELEMENTS OF GOOD
GOVERNANCE
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In order to ensure that the people are
getting the necessary and effective
services, the governance structures should
be guided by the following principles:
• political and management commitment by all
government leaders;
• clear understanding of the constitution of the
country and its implementation process;
• and effective legal framework which defines
standards of behaviour for public servants and
enforce them through systems of investigation
and prosecution;
• efficient accountability mechanisms;
• workable code of conduct;
• professional socialization mechanisms by which
public servants learn and inculcate ethics,
standards of conduct and public service
values;
• supportive public service conditions of service;
• respect for the rule of law;
• effective maintenance of law and order;
• advancement of welfare for the people; and
• the development of clear policies.
In addition to the above principles Thakhathi
(1995:14) identified the following principles which
could assist councillors and officials to behave
ethically and uphold entigrity :
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dedication to the concepts of
effective and democratic government
composed of responsible elected
office-bearers and the belief that
professional general management is
essential to the achievement of the
service objective;
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affirmation of the dignity and the
worth of the services rendered by
government and maintenance of a
constructive, creative and practical
attitude towards effective delivery of
services and a deep sense of social
responsibility as trusted civil
servants;
recognition of the fact that the chief
function of government at all times is
to serve the best interests of all the
people of Africa;
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demonstration of the highest
standards of personal integrity,
truthfulness, honesty and fortitude in
all public activities in order to inspire
public confidence and trust in public
institutions; and
serve the public with respect,
concern, courtesy and
responsiveness, recognising that
service to the public goes beyond
service to oneself.
In an effort to promote the principle of
administrative law in all public activities, the
following norms should be observed:
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Local government administration
must occur legally. The means that
all the actions of any official must
take place strictly within the
framework of existing legislation;
Local government officials must be
able to account to the public for their
actions more effectively than it is the
present moment.
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public officials must treat all
members of the public equally and
impartially;
Local administration must uphold the
principle of efficiency . This entails
achieving the greatest measure of
goal attainment within available
resources;
Local government administration
must be sensitive to and be
responsive to the needs of the
public; and
public officials must act responsibly.
THE MEANING OF ETHICS AND
INTEGRITY
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Andrews (1988:35) defines ethics as standards that
guide the behaviour and actions of public officials in
public institutions and which may be referred to as
moral laws. Robbins (1984:222) defines ethics as a
practical, normative, philosophical science that studies
and evaluates the rights and wrongs of voluntary
actions of human-beings.
Ethics promotes acceptable behaviour and the right
action in performing entrusted duties. The public
expects officials to be exemplary in their behaviour and
to be professional in service delivery, accountability
and effective performance.
Integrity is characteristic that refers truthfullnes, moral
value and norms .Ethics, morality and integrity go hand
in hand.
THE IMPORTANCE OF
ETHICS AND INTEGRITY.
We need sound and efficient and
effective administration
We need a professional and
competent administration.
We need a disciplined and accountable
local government administration.
We need men and women who are
trust-worthy, reliable and honest in
their dealings with the public.
Management and Leadership
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Integrity and ethics should be the
order of the day in implementing the
government priorities some of which
are:
.Service delivery
.Professionalisation
. Transformation
• Human resource development
• Customer Care
• Affirmative action
• fair labour relations practices
• fair human resource management
practices
• customer care and productivity
• gender equality and
• diversity management.
The Vision of Government
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The Public Service Vision should include:
• service orientation and commitment to
the provision of high quality services
without bribes, corruption and
maladministration.
• Responsiveness to the needs of the
public as well as being human and
caring in its dealings with them without
fear, favour and political affiliation.
• Responsiveness to all sections and
levels of society without any
discrimination;
• Maintenance of fair labour practices for
all workers irrespective of race, gender
or class;
• Efficient, effective and productive civil
service without any wastage;
• Respect for the rule of law and human
rights; and
• Honest, transparent and accountable
government and administration
Strategies for promoting ethics and
integrity
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The following strategies could help:
• Education, training and empowerment
of officials in ethics and integrity;
• Creation of a strategic direction and
plan in promoting a shared vision;
• Encouraging sound and effective
communication among all workers,
managers and stakeholders on integrity
and ethics. Good examples of ethics
should be shared and be discussed.
• Encourage effective participation by all
to own and legitimise ethical code of
conduct.
• Encourage all the structures to respect
and implement the transformation
policies and the NDP.
• Act strictly to obtain unity and trust in
upholding values and principles
• Encourage the sharing and exchange of
ideas by all openly and frankly;
• Hold events to award those who
behaved well and who fought corruption
gallantly;
• Build strong, competent and strategic
leadership team that is not afraid to
take action.
• Deal quickly with all the unethical cases
• Encourage teamwork and support;
• Draw up the ethical and integrity
implementation plan; and
• Deal strongly with negative attitudes
and unethical behaviour.
The Role of Leaders and Managers
in ethics and integrity.
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The Leaders and Managers must, together
with other people, drive the process
effectively. These managers and leaders
must:
• continually conduct research to identify ethical
and integrity problems, analyse those
problems and give a proposed solutions;
• consult with all the relevant stakeholders and
agencies that deal with unethical and integrity
cases.
• commit themselves to action plans and
deadlines;
• engage followers in the decision-making
processes that are fair, just and open;
• assist political leaders who do not
understand the administrative system of
local government;
• train, educate and develop all workers
and political leaders
• promote a work ethic and integrity
• clearly implement the strategic plan of
the department with all key role-players
• build capacity to ensure compliance
• be accessible, available, competent and
capable to fight corruption, maladministration
and dishonesty.
• be change agents who make drive and manage
clean and sound administration.
• Uphold the constitution, laws and policies of
the country.
• Place loyalty to the highest moral principles to
the country above loyalty to persons, party
• Make no private promises of any kind binding
upon the duties of any office
• be prepared to face challenges and not pass
the buck;
• be accountable and responsible;
• become a revocrat (power changes) and not a
bureaucrat;
• be able to think multidimensionally;
• be “heuristic” (trial and error) in approach and
not “algorithmic” (mathematically);
• be pragmatists and not theorists;
• be proactive and not reactive;
• initiate and create changes;
• promote organizational rebirth and renewal;
and
• be tough, inspired and develop a drive to
sustain commitment and determination
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South Africa belongs to all of us. Let us move forward
with pride and integrity. Let us derive pleasure and
contentment from effective service delivery and sound
relations with our clients. Commitment denotes three
areas of behaviour:
• belief in and acceptance of national goals and
values;
• willingness to exert effort beyond what one has been
employed for. This might include giving up private
time to official work, or postponing a holiday;
• making some other personal sacrifices and nurture
the desire to maintain love for the country, and its
citizens. Let us make a difference. Let us declare
war on laziness, unprofessional and unethical
conduct, corruption, nepotism, low performance,
absenteeism, irresponsibility and lack of
accountability.
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The credo devised by James Yen in 1920
as strategy for Rural Construction in China
can act as a guideline:
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go to the people;
live among the people;
learn from the people;
plan with the people;
work with the people;
start with what people know;
build on what people have;
teach by showing, learn by doing;
not a showcase but a pattern;
not odds and ends but a system;
not a piecemeal but an integrated approach;
not a relief but a release.
THE ROLE OF COUNCILLORS & MANAGERS
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The following actions could assist leaders
to cope with the ethical and integrity
challenges:
• cultivate their capacity for strategic thinking;
• develop strategic perspectives for their
municipalities and where it is going, and share
that foundation perspective with all employees
within ;
• focus on a few vital issues at a time and devise
strategic initiatives to resolve them;
• create and internal capacity to carry out the
ethical and integrity initiatives, structure
opportunities for broad participation in
developing them and seek external support for
their implementation;
• set up ways to exert strategic control over how
the municipality is performing on new
initiatives; and
• measure what goes on inside the municipality
and evaluate its impact on customers and
stakeholders as strategic initiatives are
implemented, and let those signals guide
learning. Starling (1993:10-18) indicated that
no matter how diverse the activities of the
public service might be, research indicates that
these activities can be organized into various
roles. These roles are divided into three main
categories: interpersonal, informational and
decisional.
Interpersonal Roles: Emotional
Intelligence
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Interpersonal roles refer to
relationships with other people. In
the organization setting those
relations are shaped by leaders.
• the figurehead role involves the
handling of ceremonial and symbolic
activities for the municipality free of
corruption and fraud.
• the leadership role encompasses relationships
with subordinates, including motivation,
communications, encouragement and influence
without any favours and preferences
• the liaison role pertains to the development of
information sources both inside and outside
the department. This role gives managers the
opportunity to maintain a vast network of
sources. These roles allow managers to
enhance their relationships with their
employees. This is where the managers must
make themselves available to staff members
especially those who seek counseling, advice,
support, love and friendship. Interpersonal
relations at work are vital because workers are
human beings with feelings and emotions.
Information Roles
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Given their wide range of personal
relations, leaders emerge as the
nerve centre of their municipalities
with various roles:
• the monitor role involves seeking
current information from many sources;
• the disseminator role involves
transmitting current information to
others both inside and outside.
• the spokesperson role pertains to official
statements about the programmes to people
outside the department;
• the public relations role involves addressing
marketing and publicity, and building the
corporate image of the municipality;
• the public speaking role pertains to addressing
various gatherings, meetings, conferences,
seminars, etc. The manager must speak and
address the public about various issues of
municipal management;
• the needs analyst role involves identifying the
needs of the municipality and prioritizing
them;
• the researcher role involves searching for vital
information that should enable the manager to
gain knowledge about the municipality and its
activities.
Decision-Making Roles
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The availability of information leads to a
sound decision-making process. This role
enables leaders to follow a new course of
action. Leaders should have the courage
and the confidence to make a choice from
alternatives:
• the entrepreneur role involves the initiation of
change. Leaders should be innovative and
creative;
• the disturbance handler role involves resolving
conflicts among subordinates ;
• the resource allocator role pertains to decisions
about how to allocate people, time, equipment,
budget and other resources to attain the
desired outcomes; and
• the negotiator role involves formal
negotiations and informal bargaining to attain
outcomes for the manager’s unit of
responsibility. This also involves the
manager’s role of interacting with unions and
other stakeholders on ethics and integrity.
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The above-mentioned roles will
enable public leaders to accomplish
the following functions:
• political management
• programme management; and
• resources management.
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Another function is that of programme
management. Programme management
requires a thorough grasp of the
traditional management functions, viz.
planning, decision-making, organising,
budgeting, leading and controlling. The
implementation and evaluation of
programmes in the public service are
essential because that will enable
government to know whether their
programmes are effective and efficient or
not.
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The resources management function
is equally important as part of
management’s ability to govern and
implement policies. Without people,
material, money, time, information,
etc., nothing could take place. Public
service leaders should ensure that
they manage resources well as they
are charged with safeguarding the
public/clients.
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According to Galbraith (1996:4-5),
leaders must:
• start validating understanding and stop
assuming that people understand;
• start consistent dissemination of
organizational activities/updates and
stop assuming that the clients don’t
need to know;
• start communicating the whole picture
and stop assuming that clients already
know;
• start timely follow-up actions and stop
believing that clients can’t handle the
truth;
• start communicating accurately and
without bias and stop personalizing the
issues;
• start using resources wisely;
• start cross-training personnel for
efficiency and stop using overtime
unnecessarily;
• start utilizing effective recruitment and
screening procedures to appoint
competent staff and stop hiring staff
without clear objectives;
• start sharing information more
effectively to enhance performance in all
areas and stop letting slack times in
some staffing areas go unnoticed; and
• start developing better relationships
with suppliers to enhance efforts of both
parties and stop spending resources on
items that are not goal-driven.
EMPOWERING WORK PLACE THROUGH
ACTUALISING CLIMATE
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McAlinden (1989:2) indicates that
research has proved that positive
motivators consist of the following:
• removing controls over the employee
and holding him or her accountable for
results;
• giving the employee natural work
modules, not just adding and
subtracting tasks;
• granting the employee additional
responsibility and job freedom;
• making periodic reports available so
that, based on them, the employee may
initiate corrective action rather than be
directed to take it; and
• introducing new and more difficult
assignments so that the employee may
learn and grow.
Creating a Positive Work Climate
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A positive work climate includes and
enhances the following:
• the dignity and value of the individual to excel.
• the dignity of workers to be reliable n
trustworthy
• the dignity and validity of service excellence;
• the love for country and to display positive
attitude;
• Personal growth and self-development;
• active learning and problem-solving;
• the ability to understand, accepting, trusting,
confronting, sharing, helping, evaluating and
developing;
• people becoming independent when they have
experienced independence, trusting when they
have experienced trust, responsible when they
have experienced responsibility;
• interactive team-work;
• personal and professional growth; and
• self-development.
What is a Positive Work Climate?
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The actualizing organization with a
positive climate consists of the
following:
• a climate of active people;
• a climate of respect;
• a climate of acceptance;
• an atmosphere of trust;
• a climate of discovery;
• a non-threatening psychological
climate;
• a climate of openness;
• an emphasis in the uniquely personal
nature of growth;
• a climate in which are to report any act
of dishonesty and unethical conduct
• a climate that recognises the right of
individuals to develop and grow;
• an atmosphere that deals quickly with
ambiguity and poor performance
• an emphasis on cooperative evaluation
and self-evaluation especially on ethics
and integrity.
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According to Scott (1990:31), the move
towards empowerment involves a series of
mind shifts. Some of the shifts involve a
re-orientation of the ways employees see
their roles. These shifts should be:
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from being powerless to being powerful;
from waiting for orders to taking action;
from doing things right to doing right things;
from reactive to creative and proactive;
from being content-oriented to process- and
content-oriented;
• from quantity to quality;
• from boss responsible to all responsible;
• from blameplacing to problem-solving.
FROM PROBLEMS TO
SOLUTIONS
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In the preamble to the RDP White Paper
the former President of South Africa,
Nelson Mandela, wrote: “Our people have
elected us because they want change.
Change is what they will get. Our people
have high expectations which are
legitimate. While the government cannot
meet all these needs overnight, we must
put firmly into place the concrete goals,
time-frames and strategies to achieve this
change”.
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Public managers must take up their
cudgels and begin to translate all the
policy documents into action plans.
All public managers should continually
assess themselves and make adjustments
where necessary. They need to build their
capacity and improve their knowledge and
skills. Highly proactive people recognize
their responsibility. They do not blame
circumstances or conditions for their
behaviour.
Moving from Bureaucracy to
Revocracy
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According to Human (1998:5), the African
public service will transform fully if we
change bureaucrats into revocrats.
Revocrats signifies the power of change.
Whereas the bureaucrat is driven by a
desk, a revocrat is driven by change. Our
public managers must become revocrats
who should initiate change and provide
solutions to the complex problems facing
Africa.
Adapt or Die: The Perils of Being
Number One
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How can we change the
organizational culture for the better?
• We must think differently about the role
of the public service, its vision, mission
and goals.
• We must think differently about service
users.
• We must think differently about the
administrative structures.
• We must think differently about our
human resources.
• We must harness information
technology.
• We must create synergy between the
private and public sectors.
• We must respect public service values
and change our attitudes.
• We must fight corruption and
maladministration.
• We must emphasise quality.
• We must implement and respect a
public service ethos.
• We must balance customer
expectations.
• We must develop a customer
orientation.
• We must enhance accountability and
efficiency.
• We must respect the rule of law.
• We must uphold democratic principles
and practices.
Implementation Qualities and
Competencies
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Public managers must have the following
skills for implementing good management
for good governance (Commonwealth
Secretariat, 1996: 6-8):
• setting directions – guiding and facilitating
• moving towards entrepreneurial government
by emphasizing performance
• moving from conviction to collaboration
• courage
• commitment
• confidence
CONCLUSION
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Municipalities are faced with a lot of
challenges which demand the
workers and politicians to:
• demonstrate the highest standards of
personal integrity, truthfulness, honesty
and fortitude;
• serve the public with respect, concern,
courtesy and responsiveness,
recognizing that service to the public
goes beyond service to oneself;
• strive for personal professional
excellence and encourage the
professional development of those
associated with and those seeking to
enter into the public service; and
• affirm the dignity and worth of the
services rendered by government.
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South Africa needs all of us. Let us
stand up and deliver services to all
the people of Africa.
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