Role of Civil Societies and Non-Government Organizations

What civil society organisations or institutions are involved in monitoring public sector corruption?

Religious institutions such as churches (318a)

Tribal or village associations (318b)
Transparency International Country Chapter (318c)

Other Non-governmental organisations (318d)

Specification (318e): Institute for Security Studies, IDASA, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Public Service Accountability Monitor at Rhodes University

Please describe any significant role or campaign that any of these organisations have played recently in fighting corruption or promoting ethics in the public service. (319)

The South African Non-Governmental Coalition, SANGOCO recently adopted an anti-corruption initiative as well as its code of ethics. The NGO sector is also involved in the Cross-Sectoral Task Team hosted by the Public Service Commission

 

Are there any civic education programmes, those that address issues of citizens’ rights and obligations, transparency, democracy, public interest, ethical values, etc., being currently carried out?


If yes, by whom?
Government (320c)

Schools (320d)

Universities (320e)
Religious institutions e.g. churches, mosques, etc. (320f)
Tribe or village associations (320g)
NGO’s (320h)

Other (320i)

Specification (247h):

How has the presence of international donors e.g. multilateral, bilateral, private, etc. contributed to the corruption or unethical conduct in the public service? (321)

Beth Hogan from USAID felt that South Africa was different to other countries in that it was not donors steering government in a specific direction to tackle corrruption and encourage good governance. Rather, South Africa was an exampe to other countries. Whilst there were some problems, comparataively speaking USAID was encouraged that leadership arouind fighting corruption was coming from within the country.

David Urquhart of AusAid was unaware of any examples. He did however note that AusAid projects were managed by Australians.
Laurie Lee from DFID noted that before money is transferred to countries there must be high levels of financial compliance. Capacity building is done to ensure this and this restricts the level of abuse or diversion of donor funds as well as improving the general systems that particular departments have.

How has their presence contributed to fighting corruption and encouraging ethical conduct? (322)


If yes, who has access and to what types of information? (249c)

USAID is assisting the South African government both directly and indirectly in terms of various projects. These included funding projects related to the regulatory and financial management issues within the minstry of finance and municipal governments. It is also assisting the Criminal Justice System, in particular the Minsitry of Justice and the National Director of Public Prosecustions by responding to corruption. USAID provides limited suppport to the National Democratic Institute (NDI) which is assisting the Public Service Commission in its anti-corruption initiative, including the funding of publications and hosting workshops.
AusAid has and continues to support the Public Service Commision in deaing with public sector ethics. This support includes sending two South Africans to an anti-corruption course in Australia. A separate study tour in Australia was completed a couple of years ago around this issue. In addition, they have established the Africa Governance Fund to encourage research projects around these issues and will be funding a project at the Institute for Securty Studies (ISS) in 2000 on whistle-blower protection.
DFID has provided technical support to sectors around general financial and performance management and put in place systems to plan, budget and monitor expenditure. In South Africa they explicitly support the Anti-Corruption Initiative by providing a 'fairly modest' sum of £100 000.