Exploring Ethics in South African Municipal Procurement: Professionalism, Compliance, and Ethical Dimensions Interface

Jam Ayanda (), Bayat Mohammed Sayeed () and Rulashe Tando ()
Additional contact information
Jam Ayanda: Department of Public Administration Faculty of Management and Commerce, University of Fort Hare South Africa
Bayat Mohammed Sayeed: Department of Public Administration Faculty of Management and Commerce, University of Fort Hare South Africa
Rulashe Tando: Department of Public Management and Leadership Faculty of Humanities, Nelson Mandela University South Africa

HOLISTICA – Journal of Business and Public Administration, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 73-95

Abstract: The local government is close to the people who thus, heavily rely on it for basic needs, a legislative imperative enshrined in the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa, the Constitution of 1996. Its purpose is to supply goods and services and encourage the participation of citizens in the realisation of policy objectives. This paper is one-third of a three-series composition sought through a conceptual and theoretical perspective to interrogate the ethical dimensions in which the public service exists within the interface of professionalism and compliance with municipal procurement processes and procedures. While the local sphere of government is crucial in the democratization and intensification of mass participation, there has been a rise in incidents of corruption and fraud, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and the misuse and misdirection of funds, which gradually erode public trust. This paper employed an interpretivism paradigm and a qualitative approach, and it relied on secondary data The paper found that the erosion of public trust leads to citizens violently protesting, demanding better service delivery and that service delivery is likely to decline when funds are misappropriated since municipalities rely on the procurement of goods and services to initiate public service delivery. Furthermore, the paper found while South Africa has sound, comprehensive and clear legislative policy frameworks that regulate public procurement; implementation remains a challenge.

Keywords: Ethics; Compliance; Local government; Professionalism; Procurement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/hjbpa-2024-0005 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:hjobpa:v:15:y:2024:i:1:p:73-95:n:1005

DOI: 10.2478/hjbpa-2024-0005

Access Statistics for this article

HOLISTICA – Journal of Business and Public Administration is currently edited by Adriana Grigorescu

More articles in HOLISTICA – Journal of Business and Public Administration from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().