Story by Farai Gwaze
THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has noted the need for every institution to co-opt integrity pledges into codes of conduct as part of efforts to fight corruption in public and private institutions.
Senior civil servants from various government ministries signed integrity pledges in Harare this Tuesday as government ramps up efforts to curb corruption in the public sector.
“We are here to participate fully so that when we push the word around about integrity, about issues to do with corruption and other things we are fully integrated into the system and we know what is going on and we inform the public in a manner that is satisfactory,” said the Chief Director on the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Mr Jonathan Gandari.
ZACC General Manager Prevention of Corruption, Mrs Clara Nyakotyo made it clear that they are leaving no stone unturned in the anti-graft initiative with the next step being to push for integrity pledges to be coopted into codes of conduct at workplaces.
“The most important aspect brought by signing integrity pledges, is that the employees would adhere to the provisions of the regulations, procedures and any other documentation that govern the day to day operations of that institution. We are encouraging institutions to have their employees sign integrity pledges, however for them to be binding we leave that to the institution to come up with measures that would ensure the pledges to be binding, for example they could be part and parcel with employment contract,” she said.
Meanwhile, state run institutions of higher learning have also signed integrity pledges to curb the vice at the institutes.
Teaching about the eradication of corruption is something that our government has embraced and we are pleased that they supported that, because earlier it was talked about how one of our roles is to advise government on measures that can and should be taken and that is one of them,” noted ZACC Commissioner, Jessie Majome.
The second republic has declared zero tolerance to corruption and integrity pledges have been introduced to develop high standards of ethics in public and private institutions.
