Implementing Lifestyle Audits in Local Government to Bolster the Anti-Corruption Project in South Africa

Abstract

Municipalities play a significant role in the political, social, and economic aspects of society. Consequently,, understanding municipal corruption is critical to comprehending the nature of social disorganisation in society and the state. This study aims to investigate the key structural and policy requirements for implementing lifestyle audits as an anticorruption framework in South African local government.. The article employs a qualitative research approach, which includes the use of secondary data. This article found that adopting lifestyle audits as an anti-corruption tool requires several policies and legislations that are pertinent for the South African local government level. These include the Public Service Act of 1994 (Act 103 of 1994), the Code of Conduct for the Public Service. Therefore, it is necessary to implement interventions that expose and root out these corrupt public officials before they empty the treasury by plundering and bankrupting the municipalities. For this reason, this article proposes the implementation of lifestyle audits as a proactive anti-fraud and anti-corruption mechanism for municipalities to preserve their money, finances, and resources.