South African public service

False disclosure is treated as a criminal offence in many jurisdictions, but South African public service currently only uses disciplinary processes that are not sufficiently persuasive to deter false disclosures.

“In many cases where you will find that false disclosure itself is regarded as a criminal offence ... we do not have the same kind of sanctions in the public service regulations ... you have very little persuasive measures to deter people from submitting false disclosures.”

Currently, the sanctions for submission of false or incomplete disclosures in South Africa lead to ordinary disciplinary processes without clear consequences or severity scale, resulting in uncertainty for public officials.

“In the current system, this would be an ordinary disciplinary process ... you do not know how you get punished or whether you will be punished if you do not comply with the rules.”