Ethics Architecture in Zimbabwe’s Urban Councils: Findings from Bindura Municipality.

Abstract

The dominance of unethical practices in Zimbabwe’s urban local authorities is considered in this paper as the litmus test on the ability of existing ethics infrastructure in fighting unethical practices. Despite the adoption of code and anti-corruption framework,unethical breaches remain persistent in Zimbabwe’s urban local authorities.The purpose of this research is to examine ethics architecture of Bindura Municipality by assessing the existence, functionality and challenges of institutional mechanisms for promoting ethical conduct.In a bid to achieve the set objectives, the qualitative methodology was used to accumulate data. The research made use of observations, documentary analysis and interviews to collect data.From the data collected, several results were obtained. First, the research exposed that the adoption of ethics architecture is affected by lack of commitment to ethics, weak legal framework and the partisan recruitment of staff. Second, the research shows that ethics architecture for Bindura Municipality in not effective as instigated by political influence, lack of an immediate recall system and lack of whistle blower protection legislation. Third, weak anti-corruption legislation and poor working conditions were cited as the main factors that affects ethics architecture practices. Fourth, ethics architecture remedies including ethics trainings, strengthening of institutions and payment of competitive salaries were cited as effective in curbing corruption. The research concludes that the current ethics architecture for Bindura Municipality is ineffective to eradicate corruption, citing the gap that exist between policy and practice that erodes public trust in local governance. Therefore, the study proposes that urban councilsshould periodically conductethics training programs for their appointed and elected officials, blacklist individuals and companies that engage in supply chain corruption, strengthening of institutional structures and paying competitive salaries in a bid to strengthen ethics architecture in the fight against corruption.