Staff from the employment department yesterday attended a training on the topic of corruption led by the Anti-Corruption Commission Seychelles (ACCS).

Six groups will benefit from this training taking place at Care House and will complete it on October 5.

The objective of this training session is to create awareness on what is corruption, its causes, effects and ways to prevent it and also to remind the staff of their roles and responsibilities as public servants.

The Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs is conducting such trainings for all its staff so that they can be informed about the risks and impacts of corruption and ways by which it can be prevented.

These trainings are being done in collaboration with ACCS.

May De Silva, Commissioner of ACCS, started the training by interacting with the management staff and told them how important their job is and how important it is not to indulge in corruption.

“We often speak about corruption here and corruption there without understanding what it entails. Corruption is dishonest behaviour by those in positions of power, such as managers or government officials. We cannot use government assets for even printing stuff for the church for example. It is important for government services to raise the standard and stay clean for the country to advance further,” noted Ms De Silva.

Minister for Employment and Social Affairs, Patricia Francourt, spoke about how important the job of each one at the employment department is. “As a department that is heavily service-oriented – from registration of jobseekers, mediating over workplace grievances, undertaking labour inspections, prosecuting cases of non-compliance to labour laws and processing applications for recruitment of non-Seychellois workers – it is crucial in the eyes of the public that we are not only seen but perceived to be impartial in our decisions and actions that we undertake on a daily basis.”

She acknowledged that sometimes the department is faced with difficult clients and critics. During these difficult situations, people are often tempted to turn a blind eye on established procedures and the laws in force. However, one important element to ensure effective fulfillment of our mandate is our obligation to ensure transparency and to tackle corruption.

Minister Francourt remarked that “while there have been allegations of corruption being practiced within the ministry, these have not been substantiated by tangible evidence. Nevertheless, it is vital that we take stock in order to preserve our good image. As far as we are concerned there is zero-tolerance on corruption and as such with the help of our colleagues from the ACCS once we have been properly informed we will ensure that it has no presence within our organisation”.

She reinforced that Transparency, Fairness, Accountability and Professionalism are the values that we should integrate in our daily work. By adopting anti-corruption practices, we give a fair and equal chance to all members of the public that we serve. It also allows us to accord the due respect warranted by our colleagues by adopting good practices at all levels.

The prevention and education manager at ACCS, Denis Joubert, also said that “researches claim that corruption has a significant and robust negative effect on labour supply, and propose that this is due to the fact that corruption reduces productivity, alters the tax burden and leads to an increase in economic activity in the informal sector at the expense of participation in the formal sector.

“The sessions we are conducting aim to promote social ethics and contribute to a more profound understanding of the threat posed by corruption to the rule of law, economic activity and social being. In addition to imparting knowledge on the phenomenon of corruption, the objective is for all employees to reflect on the moral dimension of their decisions and actions, in particular in the context of their professional responsibilities.”

The employment department is the last batch within the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs to follow these trainings.

Vidya Gappy