| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to investigate the contribution of the
King II Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa in the fight
against fraud and corruption in the South African public sector.
Four areas of good corporate governance as recommended by the King
II Report, i.e. internal audit, risk management, audit committee, and
ethics (fraud prevention) have been identified for the purpose of this
study. Corruption is a significant problem both in major and developing
countries. Like organised crime, corruption is shaped by the lack of
strength of the control measures by both private and public sector. It
indicates poor governance in both private and public sector
institutions. On the other hand, corporate governance relates to
organizational arrangements put in place to provide an appropriate set
of checks and balances.
A literature review was conducted to obtain an understanding of a
number of fundamental concepts of good corporate governance as
recommended by the King II Report such as; risk management,
internal audit, audit committee, and ethics (fraud prevention),
including their applicability to the public sector institutions. The King II
Report lays down the framework for corporate governance in South
Africa. The report provides guidelines on issues of financial
performance, risk management, remuneration, audit committees,
sustainability reporting, stakeholder interest, the balance of power and
the role of directors within a business enterprise.
The empirical study made use of both quantitative and qualitative
methods including literature review as well as a structured
questionnaire that was sent to 37 national departments. The targeted
sample was all the Directors-General of the national departments or
their delegated officials. A response rate of 78°/o was achieved.
The major findings of this investigation was that the majority of
national government departments have taken a positive step towards
the implementation of the King II report, however, a lot of work is still
required to be done in order to achieve full implementation. The study
recommends steps to be taken by the national departments in order to
fully comply with the requirements of the King II Report and also
address gaps identified by the study. Further investigations will still be
required in the following areas: • The extent of implementation of good corporate governance
(King II Report) principles focusing at provincial and or local government; • The contribution of good governance (King II Report) towards the fight against fraud and corruption in local or provincial government. | |
