15 April 2005
	PAY THE PIPER FOR NOT PLAYING THE TUNE

"It's not what you know, it's who you know," was the old saying about getting on in life. In fact, both deep knowledge and personal connections are seen as vital at senior executive level. That's why top government figures who go into the private sector are in demand. The latest example is the move of communications deputy director-general Pakamile Pongwana to cellphone operator Vodacom (see "Direct line to business"). It is not to question the integrity of any individual in such cases to say that the potential for abuse is obvious. That's why there is talk of a legislated "cooling-off" period. This sounds good in principle, but raises other questions. If a person leaves government but is prevented from working elsewhere in a field where his or her skills and experience are appropriate, would this not be an infringement of individual rights? Ethical agonising over conflicts of interest is relatively recent. In the 17th century world of diarist Samuel Pepys, access to someone in high office (in Pepys's case, as secretary to the Royal Navy) was entirely accepted as a means - often the only means - of gaining lucrative business contracts. Pepys would have appreciated the practices, three centuries later, of Lyndon B Johnson, who used his control of the 1950s US senate to more than repay his Texan funders with a stream of government business, protection and preferential treatment. Nowadays, as we struggle towards the broad, sunlit uplands of good corporate governance, we try to prevent such abuses. The private sector (seeking competitive advantage) uses restraint-of-trade agreements, paying someone not to work for themselves or anyone else. A way needs to be found to impose similar limits on civil servants who enter the private sector. They shouldn't be allowed to exploit their privileged knowledge - for a reasonable period. The row between Pongwana and his director-general over the terms of his resignation point to a glaring hole in government policy. It's time to plug it.