WILLIAM GUMEDE | Ministers must be held to account for their departments’ failings

Ministerial responsibility must be enforced to ensure cabinet ministers are held accountable and the culture of impunity is stopped.

Ministerial responsibility means those in cabinet are responsible for the decisions, policies and actions of their ministries and departments. It ensures government accountability for the way public resources, finances and services are managed.

Lack of accountability at all levels of state is at the heart of persistent poor public services, financial mismanagement and corruption.

Enforcing accountability ensures elected and public officials act in the interests of the country, not their own or those of their parties.

As the Zondo commission into state capture comes to an end, a thread running through almost all testimonies is the pervasive lack of accountability by cabinet ministers, provincial MECs, municipal councillors, senior public servants and state-owned entity (SOE) executives. Yet, SA’s constitution calls for accountability, responsiveness and openness as fundamental pillars of democracy.

At the inquiry, current and former cabinet ministers, provincial MECs and municipal councillors often blamed their subordinates for corruption, mismanagement and poor public services.

For example, former health minister Zweli Mkhize blamed subordinates for irregularly giving the department’s Covid-19 communications campaign contract to Digital Vibes, which was subsequently accused of embezzling public money.

The contract was found to have contravened government tender processes and constituted irregular and wasteful expenditure. Investigating the R150m contract, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) found Mkhize had allegedly pressured senior health department officials to give it to Digital Vibes. Mkhize denied this.

Neither is there an emphasis on cabinet ministers and senior civil servants being held personally accountable for money stolen, wasted and mismanaged on their watch. Cabinet ministers must be held accountable for wrong decisions in their ministries, departments and the SOEs reporting to them. They must be held accountable even after they have left office.

Also at the commission, former mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane denied that when he was Free State MEC for human settlements he was responsible for authorising the prepayment of R1bn for a provincial housing project in which public money was squandered in illegal pre-payments to contractors and suppliers for work that was never delivered. Zwane said his subordinates were responsible.

In another example, former energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson was accused of approving the irregular sale of 10-million barrels of the country’s strategic oil reserves at lower than market price in 2015. In a subsequent investigation by public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, the blame was laid on Sibusiso Gamede, the former CEO of the Strategic Fuel Fund Association. Joemat-Pettersson did not even receive a slap on the wrist from Mkhwebane, yet as then energy minister she signed off on the decision.

One reason for lack of accountability is lack of consequences for wrongdoing. There is not a “heads-must-roll” culture when there is wrongdoing in the public service or among elected officials. Many ministers and public servants stay on even if they perform poorly, are incompetent and steal public money.

Neither is there an emphasis on cabinet ministers and senior civil servants being held personally accountable for money stolen, wasted and mismanaged on their watch. Cabinet ministers must be held accountable for wrong decisions in their ministries, departments and the SOEs reporting to them. They must be held accountable even after they have left office.

There has to be a clarification of roles and responsibilities between ministers and senior civil servants to prevent blame shifting for wrongdoing in the future.

In practice, it appears there is little clarity about who is responsible, the minister or the public servant, when public services fail and public money is mismanaged, wasted or stolen. This makes it difficult to hold individuals accountable.

The role of public servants is to ensure policies are implemented. Ministers must hold them accountable if they do not implement policies effectively. Public servants must flag problems of implementation to ministers — and if they do not, be held accountable. Parliament should also be able to call public servants and accounting officers to account for decisions they make, even after they leave their positions.

In 2018, the Public Audit Amendment Act was assented to. It gives the auditor-general the power to refer suspected “material irregularities” found during audits to public bodies for further investigation and to compel accounting authorities to “take appropriate remedial action” where irregularities exist.

If accounting officers do not implement the auditor-general’s remedial measures, the auditor-general must issue a certificate of debt compelling the accounting officer or entity to repay money lost. This will help strengthen accountability in government. However, ministers should be held personally responsible for public money lost.

Nevertheless, there is a need to build stronger accountability systems within all levels of government. Those responsible for mismanagement, waste and corruption must be identified and action taken against them. Ministers, senior public servants and accounting officers at every level should personally be held accountable for mismanagement, waste and corruption under their watch.

Accounting officers within public entities must be empowered and operate more effectively to ensure public money is spent prudently. They should also be held more responsible for financial mismanagement, corruption and inefficiencies, and be held personally liable for the cost of wrongdoing.

Parliament should increase its scrutiny of ministers and public servants, with the president holding the former to account more stringently.

There has to be more effective oversight of the public service. Parliamentary committees must ensure there are follow-ups to the recommendations of the auditor-general and Chapter 9 institutions, which are often ignored.

Senior public servants, such as directors-general and CEOs of SOEs, must be directly accountable to parliament for the implementation of policies, projects and public services under their watch.

There have to be regular audits of the performance in the public service, including their financial sustainability, quality and impact. These assessments must be published — and scrutinised — by parliament.

To ensure accountability, parliament must follow up on whether the recommendations of inquiries, task teams and investigations are implemented.

There have been many of these into poor performance, mismanagement and corruption, but changes are never made based on their recommendations. Importantly, parliament should track the recommendations of the Zondo commission to ensure they are implemented.

It should follow up on civil society, the media and citizens’ exposés  of lack of delivery, mismanagement and corruption.

Of course, the ultimate measure of accountability for a governing party is its citizens voting against it if it and leaders in government fail to deliver on their promises, become corrupt and are indifferent to the plight of the man in the street. 

William Gumede is associate professor, School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand, and author of Restless Nation: Making Sense of Troubled Times (Tafelberg).