Next time you visit one of our national parks you should see this poster up around the camp. The poster is advertising the launch of the new South African National Parks Ethics Hotline, operated by KPMG.
The line has been established to enhance a crime free wildlife experience in SANParks. It creates a mechanism for employees and members of the public to report unethical behaviour and/or criminal activities they observe or become aware of, to management.
The SANParks Ethics Hotline operates 24 hours a day for 365 days a year. It serves as an independent conduit for employees and the public. All information remains confidential and callers remain anonymous unless they specifically authorise that their identification may be made available to management.
“Unethical practices are not new to any organization,” explains Willem van Zyl, Manager of Forensic Audits. “The only challenge is that nobody wants to report unethical practices because they are scared of revenge or victimization”, he adds, "and that is why this line is anonymous unless the person logging the incident requests that their identity be made public".
The new SANParks Ethics Hotline was established because recent surveys have once again confirmed that fraud continues to be a major problem for all businesses, and as such, SANParks wants to guard against such behaviour and pro-actively respond to any such incidents. The term 'fraud and unethical behaviour, encompasses any illegal activity, i.e. poaching, theft, bribery, fraud, corruption, assault, arson, illegal harvesting, etc. All reports will be investigated and feedback will be given to SANParks Fraud committee at its quarterly meetings. Where sufficient grounds are found for further investigation and disciplinary and / or legal action, the required processes will be instituted.
"SANParks is committed to our role as a good corporate citizen and we are taking a stand against crime in South Africa, including the prosecution of offenders irrespective of their status," adds van Zyl. "To be effective in that objective, we want to eliminate all practices that disregard the law and our Board’s policies and procedures".
SANParks previous campaign to combat unethical behaviour was run internally and was underutilised. "The new system is run in a more professional way by a reputable and independent audit firm. Furthermore callers can report incidents in all 11 official languages" explains van Zyl, adding that the new line is also being well marketed internally and externally. "This is important as 53% of fraud cases and 30% of environmental cases can be attributed to tip-offs from staff members and external stakeholders," he explains.
Van Zyl hopes that this Ethics Hotline will prove successful and “will promote a zero tolerance attitude and hopefully show a decrease in unethical practices within SANParks as our organisation strives for the very highest standards of protected area management, corporate governance and business ethics. Employees and the public are vital in assisting us to achieve these ideals".