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Monitoring Conflicts of Interest and Elite Formation, a project within the Corruption & Governance Programme, will over the next two years examine the effectiveness and compliance levels of existing disclosure regimes, identify gabs in regulation and legislation and investigate case studies across South Africa.
The aim is to inform public debate and, through independent advice and support to state structures, develop policy and monitoring and evaluation tools.
This comes as popular public debate is already grappling with the potential conflict of interest of, for example, a civil servant or politician who also serves as company director or an MP joining the private sector in the same field as the parliamentary committee (s)he served on. On the political front the ruling African National Congress stands accused by opposition parties but also the tripartite alliance partners of allowing members to use the party as a means to business success.
The project has three key areas:
1) Disclosure of Interests and Conflicts of Interest Database
The collection of annual disclosures of interests from the President, his Cabinet and Parliament down to councillors in South Africa's six largest municipalities - Johannesburg, Cape Town, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Ethekwini and Nelson Mandela Metro - will lead to the establishment of a comprehensive electronic database and web-portal.
The database is envisaged to include laws, regulations and related documents so that it is a unique collection and a valuable tool for civil society, the media and policy shapers in the conflicts of interest arena.
2) Challenges of Implementation and Closing the Conflicts of Interest Policy Gap
The collection of disclosure process itself will identify some of the challenges - like lack of capacity and understanding of various disclosure regimes - but research specifically looks at the regulation and legislation gap vis-à-vis conflict of interest.
Current regulatory proposals include a cooling-off period for public servants and public elected representatives to stop the ‘revolving door' between government and the private sector. Public Service Regulations are also under scrutiny, but as conflict of interests regulations apply to only senior public servants, some 50 000 mid-level civil service manager slip through the gap.
Close scrutiny is required as structures to bring the judiciary into the disclosure fold are established in the wake of the Judicial Service Commission Amendment Bill's passage through Parliament.
3) Understanding the nature and influence of power elites in South Africa
A glaring gap in the current conflicts of interest research is a comprehensive assessment of how power elites are formed and the factors enabling them to maintain their status. What is the role of the ‘revolving door' between government and the private sector in this and will it be affected by proposed cooling-off periods and the code of conduct for senior ANC members?
Interviews with government and business leaders will shed insight how elites see themselves and their operations within broader society. Vital to this is the role civil society, oversight bodies and anti-corruption agencies can play in keeping power elites in check.
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