By Alicia Mmashakana
In a bid to beef up the public service, the government has launched Ethics Week as part of the Integrated Public Service Month, which focuses on ensuring responsive and people-centered governance.
Public Service and Administration Minister Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi said on Monday that ethics officers were essential in promoting good governance, battling corruption and supporting the government’s professionalisation agenda.
Buthelezi, who was speaking at the Ethics Week launch, said the programme intended to promote the government’s essential values of honesty, justice and transparency.
“The truth colleagues is that our public service is at a critical juncture. We are faced with numerous challenges that require our immediate attention.
“If we do not address these issues with the seriousness they deserve, we risk not only undermining public trust but also damaging the integrity of our institutions permanently,” he said.
The programme would include an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Anti-Bribery Convention Awareness Workshop, to improve accountability and an ethical culture.
The Public Administration Ethics, Integrity, and Disciplinary Technical Assistance Team would also provide lifestyle audit training to departmental investigator.
“Last year during the Ethics Week, several investigators were trained. As a result of this, 147 out of 160 national and provincial departments conducted lifestyle audits at the end of January 2024,” the minister said.
“This is an improvement of the 137 departments that did so in January 2023. I want to commend the dedication of our departmental investigators to make sure that lifestyle investigations are conducted in their departments.”
The technical assistance team, in collaboration with the National School of Government, was also creating a self-assessment tool for department heads to manage ethical concerns in their departments.
These institutions would consult with the National Ethics Officer Forum before implementing this tool in public service.
Buthelezi added that departments had referred 191 senior management services personnel for investigation this year alone.
Also, 27 departments were actively researching cases and reporting quarterly to the technical team.
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