Public Administration and Management
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Item Open Access Teorie en praktyk van deursigtigheid in die openbare sektor(University of the Free State, 2006-11) Pretorius, Marlize Carine; Van Straaten, F. P.; Kroukamp, H. J.English: The principles of accountability and transparency serve as important building blocks for a democracy that wants to enhance sound and efficient governance. The South African government experiences increased allegations of insufficient public accountability, corruption and maladministration against them and therefore it is essential to pay in-depth attention to the role of public transparency in the enhancement of sound democratic governance. Transparency is not merely an aim in itself, but serves as a means to reach the planned government objectives and to make effective and efficient participation of all role-players possible. Open and transparent governance refer to, amongst other, access to information, participation in public decision-making and the freedom of the media. An excellent relationship of trust between the public sector and the public should continuously be developed and maintained. This makes it essential to keep the public well-informed about the management of national and regional public institutions, how well they perform, the money spent by them to reach the approved public objectives and how control is exercised to ensure successful implementation of the approved government programmes. Correct and sufficient information must be available to the citizens to enable them to determine the quality of public goods- and service delivery and to therefore contribute to improved service delivery by the public sector. A public institution can be viewed as transparent when it can deliver information to various roleplayers and/or stakeholders, as prescribed by different Acts, for example the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (Act 2 of 2000). By being transparent, a public institution confirms its respect towards the country’s Acts; justifies its mere existence; confirms its willingness to follow the strategies of the government-of-the-day and to strive towards the improvement of the public welfare. Public accountability in a democratic government means that the political officebearers and public officials must account to the taxpayers for the collection and spending of public money. Public accountability therefore forms a central theme in the theory and practice of public transparency and the basis for sound public administration, as the taxpayer has a right to know how public money has been collected and spent. The South African government must implement well-planned programmes and projects to fight corruption in their strive towards the establishment of transparent, corruption-free and responsible governance. It is essential that the government-of-the-day itself fight corruption by adhering to a policy of zero tolerance towards corrupt officials, irrespective of who the individual is, and to involve the media as a partner that can publish information about corrupt practices in order for the public to be well-informed. Ethics and transparency are closely related. Ethical behaviour can lead to greater transparency in the activities of public officials. In a democratic government there is no place for keeping secrets and for confidentiality when it comes to activities which are financed with public money. Not always serving the public’s interest, but rather its own, is unfortunately part of human nature. It is therefore essential to develop and implement control mechanisms, for example auditing and reporting techniques, which will contribute to public officials adhering to the requirements of transparency and openness. It is the duty and responsibility of all public institutions (political and administrative) to continuously exercise their actions in a transparent and open manner. Transparency is the so-called oxygen of politics and the public life. In the Republic of South Africa it is important to ensure transparent governance to establish equal and effective goods- and service delivery to the citizens; to establish excellent accountability and the involvement of citizens in public decision-making; to improve a legitimate government-of-the-day; to improve the policy formulation and implementation processes; to increase international investments and lastly to decrease the rate of corruption in the country.