About

The Conflicts of Interest Project seeks to promote and strengthen policies designed to regulate conflicts of interest on the part of elected and appointed officials in the executive, legislature, judiciary and public sectors. The project also explores the nature of elite formations and their impact on public policy in South Africa. The aim is to inform public debate and, through independent research and support to state structures, develop existing policies and legal frameworks, and provide monitoring and evaluation tools.

The project has four key areas:

1) Disclosure of Financial and Other Interests

The project examines and evaluates the various aspects of the implementation process of financial disclosure for South Africa’s elected officials. These include the scope and content of disclosure requirements, compliance by elected officials, institutional support and capacity for disclosure, monitoring and oversight mechanisms and public access to information.  An ISS occasional paper entitled Financial disclosure requirements in South Africa 2004–2008: Holding elected politicians accountable,  published in July 2009, provides key findings and recommendations.

2) The Conflicts of Interest Database and Webportal

The collection of annual disclosures of interests of elected officials from South Africa’s executive government structures (Presidency and Cabinet members) and ten parliaments as well as councillors in South Africa's six metropolitan municipalities – including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Ethekwini - has led to the establishment of a comprehensive electronic database and web-portal.

The database also provides users with unique resource collection of relevant laws, regulations, research and news updates, providing a valuable information tool for civil society, the media and policy shapers in the conflicts of interest arena.

3) Closing the Conflicts of Interest Policy Gap

The project also seeks to identify existing regulatory loopholes and gaps vis-à-vis conflicts of interest where numerous opportunities for unethical conduct remain. We also promote the extension of regulatory frameworks to key state actors that currently remain excluded.

Important examples include the revolving door between government and business where public officials are recruited into the private sector, taking up lucrative jobs with the same corporate interests who had business pending before them when they served in government. South African law is yet to recognize that the rapid movement of public officials threatens the integrity of government. Public Service Regulations are also under scrutiny, but as conflicts of interests regulations apply to only senior public servants, some 50 000 mid-level civil service managers continue to slip through the gap. Finally, we give close attention to proposed legislation that aims to bring the judiciary into the disclosure fold, following the passing of the Judicial Service Commission Amendment Bill's passage by Parliament.

4) 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 that enable them to maintain their status. Key questions that drive this area of research ask how the ‘revolving door' between government and the private sector contributes to the formation and maintenance of power elites and whether they will be adequately regulated by proposed cooling-off periods and codes of conduct for senior members of incumbent parties.