According to Dimant (2013), the impact of corruption is multifaceted and varies greatly across countries. The corruption discourse has developed prolifically over the years (Kajsiu, 2014), however there is little consensus on aspects of corruption, making it difficult to theorise. This is evident in this study on public procurement corruption in the eThekwini Municipality, as there is no distinct theory that can be used to understand corruption.
According to Rubinstein & Maravić (2010) the Weberian-Ideal Typical Approach sees corruption as a lack of rationalisation of the public service. Loopholes exist in the poorly developed bureaucratic system in which corrupt acts can occur. In South Africa, the public procurement sector is used as a policy tool to address the discriminatory and unfair practices of the past. Prior to 1994, this sector was geared toward large and established contractors, and it was difficult for new contractors to participate in government procurement procedures. Reforms in public procurement and the introduction of the SCM policy, were initiated to promote principles of good governance and to address the inconsistency in policy application, lack of accountability and supporting structures (Ambe and Badenhorst-Weiss, 2012). However, despite the employment of these measures, corruption in the public procurement sector in the eThekwini Municipality is rampant. Instead of creating an efficient service delivery system, a situation has been created in which the narrow élite accrue huge fortunes by means of
„tenderpreneurship‟, and poor service delivery is the common experience for a large proportion of citizens.
The Structural Functionalist approach sees society as a collection of coherent systems in which all societal problems have a function, including corruption (De Graaf et al., 2010). According to Waquet (1992) corruption can provide protection and influence for social groups with material wealth. In the case of public procurement corruption in the eThekwini Municipality, this could be portrayed through cadre deployment and cronyism in which tenders are repetitively given to selected individuals, specifically, those who show their allegiance to the ANC. Hence corruption in this sense is a means by which the ANC can maintain control over the resources of the eThekwini Municipality.
Some scholars argue that the Systems theory can be utilised to adequately explain corruption (Preston et al., 2002; Hiller, 2010). This theory identifies corruption as a result of the overlapping of systems, resulting in the abuse of another system‟s logic. The overlapping of roles and systems were evident in the eThekwini Municipality at two different junctures. First, there is a blurring of lines between the political party and the state, making the state an extension of the political party, allowing for no accountability, transparency and the manipulation of SCM procedures. Additionally, the anti- corruption agencies suffer from overlapping mandates which affects their operating ability and hinders their efficiency in combatting corruption (Public Service Commission, 2001).
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The Post Positivist Approach focuses on how corruption is socially constructed (De Graaf et al., 2010). In this theory, corruption has a social meaning and must be understood with reference to its social setting (Sissener 2001). In this study, a corruption conundrum was evident in the eThekwini Municipality, specifically, in the difficulty in characterising and proving corrupt acts.
The Public Choice Theory views corrupt officials as rational individuals who employ the most profitable course of action (De Graaf et al., 2010). In the public procurement sector, tenders are seen as a source of wealth, and an area in which loopholes and kickbacks can be acquired. Service delivery is imperative and is needed on a daily basis for the citizens of eThekwini Municipality. This explains why officials, councillors and bureaucrats capitalise on the loopholes in the SCM legislation to obtain kickbacks.
All these theories do not however adequately account for corruption in the public procurement sector in the eThekwini Municipality. These theories neglect to take into consideration the historical background of South Africa, which has resulted in service delivery deficits to the poor. Prior to 1994, public procurement was geared towards large and established contractors. It was a challenge for new contractors to participate in government procurement procedures. With the democratic dispensation public procurement has been used as a policy tool to address the discriminatory practices of the past (Ambe and Badenhorst-Weiss, 2012). Reforms and the SCM were instituted to promote principles of good governance and introduce a preference system to address the socio-economic objectives.
However these have faced numerous challenges, and there is non-compliance with procurement and SCM legislation, as well as with tender procedures (Ambe and Badenhorst-Weiss, 2012). There has thus been poor service delivery to the citizens of eThekwini Municipality and the local government grapples with corruption in the public procurement sector. These theories also fail to provide an understanding of the factors that contribute to corruption in the eThekwini Municipality, such as the legacy of colonialism and the apartheid regime.
While there are a number of different theories that can provide insight into the corruption discourse, it has become apparent that corruption impacts on the most vulnerable sections of the society such as women, children, minorities and those who are poor (Gebeye, 2012). Corruption undermines the ideals of equality, justice and human dignity and violates the human rights of poor citizens through the diversion of public resources and the right to basic service delivery. In the eThekwini Municipality, corruption impedes service delivery, entrenching inequalities and fuelling dissatisfaction that citizens experience.
According to Gebeye (2012) corruption is a global challenge and its degree of severity varies from country to country. However, it is the poor in these countries that are most affected by corruption due to their powerlessness to change the status quo and their reliability on state resources to survive. This was exemplified in the eThekwini Municipality, as it is the poor and those reliant on basic service
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delivery whose rights are violated. Corruption in the eThekwini Municipality results in large scale unauthorised, irregular and wasteful expenditure, in which billions of Rands were lost. Furthermore, corruption directly undermined the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as citizens were unable to access basic services such as housing and water, which they have a right to as per the Bill of Rights.
Similarly, Olaniyan (2014) states that it is incontestable that corruption undermines the rights outlined in the Bill of Rights.
Instead of utilising the SCM processes and reforms to address the inequalities of the past, a new élite has been created due to cronyism, „tenderpreneurship‟ and the manipulation of legislation, such as Section 36, which entrenches inequality. Cadre deployment in the eThekwini Municipality also contributes to human rights violations. Apart from preventing qualified and experienced officials from getting jobs, it has also created a situation in which incompetence and lack of expertise by officials has fostered inadequate service delivery to citizens of the Municipality. Thus, instead of legislation preventing corruption, loopholes were created and the system was manipulated to gain kickbacks which severely hampered service delivery to citizens.
With the release of the Manase Report in the eThekwini Municipality, numerous measures have been instituted to curb and prevent corruption in the eThekwini Municipality to ensure that the human rights of citizens are upheld. However these have largely failed in their duty to reduce corruption. It is the poor who are subject to the consequences of corruption, and it is for this reason that many embark on large scale service delivery protests. This was the case in the eThekwini Municipality when numerous communities engaged in violent service delivery protests in order to advocate for better service delivery and to highlight the inadequacies of the current government.
The media and NGOs also played a role in drawing attention to the human rights violations caused by corruption and have played an informative role in educating citizens on their human rights. Corruption in the public procurement sector is a grave issue that has many knock-on effects. Not only does it create a lack of transparency and accountability in public procurement processes, it delegitimises the government. It also allows for the manipulation of legislation for personal gain and redistributes money intended for the provision of public services into the pockets of the corrupt. It allocates tenders to individuals who do not carry out projects to specifications, or do not deliver the services at all. In its entirety, corruption in the public procurement sector results in poor service delivery to its citizens, which is a direct infringement of their human rights and is contrary to the Constitution of South Africa. Through the use of the human rights based approach to corruption, this study has drawn attention to the fact that corruption is not just the misappropriation of money or abuse of power. It emphasises that corruption has detrimental effects on citizens which can lead to human rights violations (Pearson, 2001).