Page 16 - Service Delivery Review

2022 Public Service Ethics Survey

The State of Ethics – A synopsis of the

2022 Public Sector Ethics Survey

Introduction
After the initial assessment of the state of ethics in the Public Sector in 2015, the 2022 Public Sector Ethics Survey
(PSES) is the third in a series. The 2022 edition of the PSES skipped a year because of the limitations imposed by
the Covid-19 epidemic, although the 2018 edition was published within the intended three-year cycle. Over 8 803
answers from the national, provincial, and local levels of government were received for the 2022 PSES, which has
improved on the success of earlier editions.

This high response rate as surveys go is mainly attributable to the partnership between the Department of Public
Service and Administration (DPSA), the Department of Cooperative Governance, the South African Local Gov-
ernment Association and the Ethics Institute. Without the weight of the government partners, The Ethics Institute
would have found it challenging to have both the reach and the number of respondents. Moreover, their combined
credibility ensured that the data from the survey would be useful and contribute towards improving ethics man-
agement in the Public Sector.

The graphic above provides an overview of the respondents who constituted an extensive 2022 sample of 8 803,
as previously mentioned. In it could be seen the relative sample contributions of the different government spheres,
and the provinces making up a more significant share of the total, followed by national and local government. It,
therefore, provides a good sense of the scale of the Public Sector in its totality. Within this terrain, the survey deep-
dives to understand what behaviours frequently occur across the public service and administration system. The
other pertinent questions revolve around how the ethical culture manifests itself and whether there is a supportive
ethical environment, such as awareness of ethics management interventions, as well as perceptions of whether
there is the organisational will to tackle lapses in ethics.

The 2022 Public Sector Survey covers four key areas:
§ Occurrence of ethical behaviour
§ Ethical culture risk
§ Awareness of ethics management interventions, and
§ Perceptions of misconduct reporting/whistle-blowing. (New addition in 2022).

There was also a section where participants could make verbatim suggestions for improving ethical culture.

16 SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW | Volume 15 • No. 2 of 2022/2023