1.1 The Integrity Management Unit (IMU) is a newly established Unit in the Office of the National Director of Public Prosecutions.

1.2 In any country, whether developed, developing or underdeveloped, society entrusts confidence in its political institutions. However, if society becomes intolerable of the prevailing erosion of ethical behaviour, the said confidence and trust in the system is lost. The level of internal criminal, unethical, dishonest and mismanagement behaviour within nearly all the governmental institutions, which includes the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), has become a matter of concern. The pervasiveness of unethical conduct is not a South African phenomenon but is a national, transnational and international concern. It is in this context that the NPA, in the pursuit of its vision, deemed it critical to establish the IMU.

1.3 The IMU is tasked to continually assess, prevent, monitor, evaluate and maintain the NPA's integrity so that it is not in any way compromised. How it identifies itself has to keep up with the expected ethos. The IMU is further tasked to have a complete oversight role on the reactive systems and processes where there has been a compromise of the organisation’s integrity.

1.4 Therefore, the mandate of the IMU is to—

a. enhance the establishment and implementation of the professional standards and programmes developing and enhancing the integrity of the NPA;

b. implement advocacy on all policies, regulations, procedures and programmes and engendering public perception of the organization;

c. provide education and training to all; thus continuously raising levels of awareness on integrity related issues;

d. provide advisory support service to the NPA and its Business Units to enable enforcement of the expected professional standards and constitutional compliances and to suggest required interventions from time to time;

e. monitor and evaluate compliance with the organisational policies and procedures; and

f. oversee all integrity compromising projects of the Business Units where vulnerability may be at issue; on vetting, as well as on all reactive systems and processes in the organisation.

Through its Integrity Promotion Strategy the IMU strives to achieve the following objectives:

a. Building the image of the NPA that has confidence and trust of the public.

b. Cultivating a culture within the NPA that promotes integrity in its dealings internally and externally.

c. Improving accountability, efficiency and effective administration within the NPA, including decision-making and management conduct which promotes integrity.

d. Ensuring the improvement of the application of systems, policies, procedures, rules and regulations in those areas where the organisation is most vulnerable in a manner that limits and contains corrupt unethical conduct.

e. Changing those aspects of the NPA that undermine the institutional integrity and which facilitate unethical conduct, fraud and corruption and allowing these to go unnoticed or unreported.

f. Encouraging all employees and other stakeholders to strive toward the promotion of integrity and for the prevention and detection of unethical conduct, fraud and corruption impacting or having the potential to impact negatively on the NPA.

The IMU has been able to achieve the following:

a. Besides the initial proper establishment problems and lack of the conceptual direction, the Unit is now gaining momentum in having itself properly placed in the organisation.

b. There has been a successful laying of the ground for a shared understanding of the concept of the integrity management through high-level interviews and interactions.

c. The Unit has provided ad hoc assistance to other Business Units in espousing the proper entail of integrity at their discussion sessions.

d. There have been presentations made by members of the Unit at other Unit’s meetings regarding issues of integrity.

e. During the course of its establishment, the Unit has produced the following documents:

a. An Integrity Promotion Strategy for the NPA.

b. An Anti-Corruption Strategy of the NPA.

c. A Fraud Response Plan.

d. An Overview of Ethics in the NPA.

e. An Ethical Code of Conduct.

f. A Whistle Blowing Policy.

f. In preparation for its operational areas, the IMU has researched and filed reports on the following matters:

• The staff establishment of the NPA at Head Office and Regional Offices, countrywide.
• Appointments, transfers, promotions and attritions to date in the NPA.
• The state of the Public Service Report.
• The legal mandate for security clearances.
• An analysis on all regional and national conferences.
• The creation of a suggestion box.
• Trends analysis on disciplinary hearings.
• A summary on the best practices on Risk Management.

The IMU has been receiving reports from members of the public through the hotline service of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. This service has been vitally important in giving the IMU an indication as to the health of the NPA. The IMU always commissions investigations into any allegations contained in such reports. However, this service has, among others, the following shortcomings:

a. The NPA has no control over the said hotline and only receives reports regarding the allegations on commissions of misconducts or offences by its employees at the will of both the Service Center and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.

b. Hotline reports, which are supposed to be confidential, do not come at first hand to the NPA, but first go through many hands.

c. The lack of the investigative capacity of the IMU resulted in the IMU referring the allegations to be investigated by the Business Units themselves and this methodology has not been conducive to obtaining best results.

A solution to these shortcomings is the engagement of an independent, more focused, controllable and answerable NPA’s own Hotline Service Provider. The IMU is investigating the establishment of such a service provider, where after a recommendations will be made to the NPA EXCO.

The IMU has also been receiving direct reports from individuals, government bodies, and Business Units within the NPA. Investigations have been directed and the results are as follows:

a. There are National Prosecution Services investigations that have been finalised; some of which are still awaiting the decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Pretoria. The decision on other investigations has been handed down and the accused, a prosecutor and his wife, are to be charged with fraud.

b. There are DSO cases, which are still under investigation.

c. The IMU had an oversight on HRM & D investigations wherein the employee was convicted and sentenced to an effective term of imprisonment.

Declaration of Financial Interests

The IMU has been successful in effecting most of these declarations in terms of the Public Service Regulations.

Vetting

• In exercising its determined oversight role, the IMU has succeeded in achieving the crucial address on vetting. Eighty five percent of the NPA members have submitted their Z204 forms for vetting. The remaining 15% is being followed up.
• The IMU has also been successful in working with the Security Risk Management Unit in establishing a vetting policy, which is now in its completion stage.

Security clearances in respect of new appointees, transfers and promotions

The IMU has been successful in inculcating the sense of security at the above levels. As a result, the HRM & D Unit and the Security & Risk Management Unit have addressed the above gap. Preliminary consent forms for the applicants have been designed only for the purposes of enquiring into the background and educational achievements of the aspiring candidate. The legal implications of this process are being investigated, as the candidates are not yet employees of the NPA when this process is embarked upon.

The IMU has not been fully operational and is in a process aligning itself with the strategic objective of the NPA being the fight against crime so that, above all, the integrity of the NPA is not compromised

The IMU will in the coming year focus on operation activities to ensure that the Unit will intensify our efforts to protect the integrity of the NPA.