EthicsSA offers a wide range of ethics-related services to organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as well as in the professions. These include:
Thought leadership
EthicsSA is committed to stimulating and advancing awareness of ethics in South Africa and also in other countries on the African continent where we are active. We participate regularly in public debates in the media and contribute to policy formulation in respect of business ethics, corruption prevention and professional ethics.
Our staff members do presentations at public events and participate in academic conferences. They also write contributions to academic and popular publications.
EthicsSA conducts research related to business ethics, corruption prevention and professional ethics. Our research has a distinct focus on the capacity of organisations and professions to deal with the ethics challenges and opportunities that they encounter. Our research findings are made publicly available as a means of creating ethics awareness and to stimulate ethical debate.
To read more on the King Committee, click here
Training
We offer both in-house and public training events on a variety of ethics related themes.
For more on our training programmes click here
Advisory Services
EthicsSA advises organisations in the public and private sectors, as well as professional associations, on all aspects of the management of ethics. These advisory services include:
- Ethics management advisory services
We advise organisations on all aspects of their ethics management programmes in line with best practice in corporate governance, which include:
- Assessing ethics risks and opportunities
- Drafting and revising codes of ethics and ethics policies
- Strategies, structures and systems for institutionalising ethics in organisations
- Internal auditing of, and reporting on, ethics
- Corruption prevention advisory services
We assist organisations in:
- Developing a corruption prevention strategy
- Establishing and staffing an integrity or ethics office
- Building corruption prevention capacity
- Monitoring effectiveness of corruption prevention
- Professional ethics advisory services
We assist professional associations in:
- Identifying the ethics risks faced by the profession and its members
- Drafting or revising their codes of ethics and codes of conduct
- Identifying training needs related to ethics in their profession
- Developing continuing professional development (CPD) training modules
- Ethics committee advisory services
We serve on the ethics committees of private-sector organisations, as well as on ethics advisory boards of professional associations.
Assessments
EthicsSA has developed a range of assessment instruments to assist organisations in gauging their current state of ethics. The following assessments are conducted in organisations:
- Ethics risk assessment
Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative assessment instruments we assist organisations to identify their ethics risks and opportunities in order to compile an organisational ethics risk profile.
- Organisational ethics indicator
This instrument assists organisations to gauge the effectiveness of their ethics management interventions as well as the prevailing ethical culture in the organisation. It also benchmarks companies against their industry peers.
- Internal audit of ethics assessment
With this toolbox of instruments, consisting of both quantitative and qualitative instruments, we assist internal audit teams to report on the adequacy and effectiveness of their organisation's ethics management programme as well as on the prevailing ethical culture of the organisation.
- Codes of ethics assessment
This assessment is offered to companies wishing to ensure that their code of ethics adhere to best-practice code development standards.
- Technical ethics compliance assessment
With this instrument we assist organisations to determine whether their ethics management practices comply with best-practice standards and King III requirements for ethics management in organisations.
- Minimum anti-corruption capacity assessment
National and provincial government departments are audited to determine whether they are compliant with the minimum anti-corruption capacity requirements established by Cabinet. Municipalities are assessed on similar standards.
Certification
EthicsSA certifies certain ethics-related services, as well as service providers, to provide assurance that these services and service providers meet relevant technical and ethics standards. We offer the following certification services:
- Ethics Officer certification
Persons who have successfully completed the coursework examinations and the practical component of the Ethics Officer Certification Programme (EOCP) are certified as Ethics Officers.
To view the Certified Ethics Officers, click here
- Hotline service provider certification
Providers of independent safe reporting facilities are assessed against our External Whistle-blowing Hotline Service Provider Standard (EO1.1.1) to determine whether the service that they provide is ethically sound and trustworthy. Service providers are certified on an annual basis.
Certified service providers are:
1. KPMG Ethics Line
2. Deloitte Tip-offs Anonymous
3. Whistle Blowers (Pty) Ltd
Project management
EthicsSA acts as project manager for donor organisations that wish to enhance good governance, corruption prevention, or professional ethics. To this end we assist them with:
- The design of project plans and proposals
- The implementation of approved projects
- The monitoring and review of projects
- Reporting on project progress and effectiveness
Examples of projects that EthicsSA has managed include:
- Ethics capacity building in the public and private sectors
- Drafting private-sector and industry codes of ethics
- Collective action between the public and private sectors to fight corruption
