Integrity
Ethics and Integrity in the Public Sector
ABSTRACT:
A competent and impartial public administration is a necessary condition for the appropriate
performance of its duties; the public must have confidence in the authorities’ discharge of
their duties, in accordance with the rule of law and the democratic frameworks. For this
reason the reliability of the public administration can be guaranteed only when guiding
principles that govern working for the administration are both explicit and known to all those
involved.
AUTHOR:
Peter Krekel (peter.krekel@minbzk.nl)
Ethics and Integrity in the Public Sector
An important policy theme through out the governments of the EU member
states nowadays focuses on increased attention to society’s shared standards
and values. A competent and impartial public administration is a necessary
condition for the appropriate performance of its duties; the public must have
confidence in the authorities’ discharge of their duties, in accordance with the
rule of law and the democratic frameworks. For this reason the reliability of the
public administration can be guaranteed only when guiding principles that
govern working for the administration are both explicit and known to all those
involved. These guiding principles constitute the essence of the appropriate
discharge of public-staff duties - and their importance has significantly
increased during the past few years. The expansion of the discretionary
powers of administrative bodies, the changes in administrative relations and
the emphasis placed on interactive policy-making have all created more scope
for civil servants’ individual responsibilities.
On the international level various conventions, rules, declarations in the field
of integrity ( most of which are on the fight against fraud and corruption) which
were established in the OECD, the Council of Europe etc. already exist and
have formally been adopted by EU member states. Member states of these
organisations accepted quite a number of detailed obligations for reforming
their ethical framework at home.
In this light it is at least noticeable the EIPA studies on ethics and integrity
which was carried out under the Irish and Dutch presidency conclude that
when it comes to unethical behaviour in public services as a whole there is
(except with regard to police and judiciary functions and the protection of the
Financial interests of the EU) still surprisingly little regulatory activity at the EU
level, though it is recognized that the EU has never made any legally or nonlegally binding decisions for public officials in the general field of ethics
because the EU has no clear competence in these matters. Nevertheless the
EIPA-study brings to our attention that in its Communication to the Council,
the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee,
(COM(2003) 317 final), the Commission not only invites the EU Member
States to introduce various measures to facilitate the detection, investigation,
prosecution and adjudication of corruption cases, such as common standards
for collection of evidence or protection for whistleblowers, victims and
witnesses of corruption but also recommends that Member States might
engage, for example, through the EUPAN network in a comprehensive
dialogue within the EU on common administrative integrity standards in public
administrations and policies across the EU.
An ideal integrity policy would focus on the prevention of damage to integrity
in a manner that offers scope for the individual responsibilities and requires
civil servants to arrive at carefully considered decisions on specific integrity
issues within society and administration. For this reason the integrity policy
also places great emphasis on cultural issues.
On the other hand a code of conduct can be an important tool and form of
support in fostering an appropriate culture within administrative organizations.
Such code needs to constitute an active and ‘living’ tool that is fully integrated
in a necessarily open, transparent, and honest organizational culture. The
code identifies standards and values of importance to the discharge of publicofficial duties in administrative organizations. Many national authorities and
international organizations have already introduced internal codes of conduct
that devote attention to the principles of public-official ethics and integrity.
A suitable code of conduct will be comprised of a prudent combination of a
framework for the consideration of ethical issues, specific rules, and examples
of situations confronted in practice. Civil servants will need to realize that it is
impossible to lay down comprehensive rules for moral actions, and they will
repeatedly need to seek recourse to their ethical awareness. An appropriate
discharge of public-official duties is a question of an attitude; it is a moral
disposition. A code of conduct will assist civil servants to avoid actions which
are incompatible with an appropriate discharge of their duties.
The Document ’Main Features of an Ethics Frame work’ contains common
elements and points out the enhancing factors for ethical behaviour and may help
EU Member States to generate awareness of ethics and integrity in the public
service, may facilitate further discussions on ethics and integrity in the EU
Member States and may serve as a framework document and/or general
guideline for the implementation or development of ethics and integrity in the
public sector. It may provide an important tool in fostering an appropriate culture
within public administrations.