The Impact of Accountability and Ethics on Public Service Delivery. A South African Perspective

Government and society cannot promote and enforce ethical behaviour solely through the utilisation of ethical codes of conduct or through the promulgation of a plethora of legislation. Communities tend to equate moral values and moral norms with values and norms, which apply only to personal relations. In terms of South Africa’s Constitution (Act 108 of 1996), all government departments are required to be efficient which includes observing particular ethical codes of conduct. Campbell (in Chapman, 2000:185) writes that public officials who are employed in complex government departments, have to be accountable to their immediate superiors, the political leadership and the public at large. According to Stewart (in Hondeghorn, 1998:132): “Public accountability rests both on giving an account and on being held to account”. All government departments have to be efficient because they have to ensure value for taxpayers ’ money. Efficiency encompasses the qualitative and value-laden expectation