MAIN FEATURES OF AN ETHICS FRAMEWORK FOR PUBLIC SECTOR

Section I: General core values

Although there are some major differences between the various Member States it is, nevertheless, possible to identify a number of basic or core values that should be applicable to all EU governments.The following list of six (partly overlapping) core values is intended to serve as an impetus for a more detailed formulation of these values:

1. Principle of the rule of law: The public administration’s actions should be legitimized by national, EU and international law. Consequently the constitution and the associated legislation and regulations should serve as the framework or the reference for the public administration’s actions. Within this context consideration can be given to the principle of legality, and to the general principles of proper administration.
2. Impartiality / objectivity: Since civil servants represent the general interest the public must have confidence in the administration’s lack of prejudice and impartiality – or, in other words, that the administration will refrain from favouring some more than others. Civil servants must form an opinion solely on objective grounds, and in forming their opinions they may not be impeded by improper or personal motives (such as political believes, social or other perceptions or (financial) conflicts of interest). Additional factors which play a role are equitableness, neutrality, and independence.
3. Reliability / transparency: Reliability refers to the public’s confidence that the administration – and, consequently, civil servants – will honour their agreements and fulfil their promises. This is of importance to the organization’s credibility; the public’s confidence depends entirely on the reliability of individual civil servants. Many of a civil servants’ actions, irrespective of where and when those actions take place, exert an influence on other people’s perceptions of civil servants – and, consequently, on the confidence that can be placed in the organization. In this respect it is important to recall that transparency gives citizens insight in the machinery of government and hereby contributes to the confidence and reliability of the public service. The role of an independent media as a ‘bureaucratic watchdog’ is crucial.
4. Duty of care : In addition to the care needed in decision-making, for example in taking account of all the relevant interests and the appropriate use of the assigned competences in arriving at a decision, this core value is also manifested in the care taken in the use of the resources made available to the service. In addition, care is also required in the deployment of the financial resources – care in the form of economy, effectiveness, and efficiency (value for money).
5. Courtesy, and willingness to help in a respectful manner: The actions of civil servants should be focused on the interests of the organization and the public who are dependent on that organization. Civil servants should treat citizens – and each other – with respect, and they should give due heed to the standpoints, perceptions and contributions of others. This core value also extends to factors such as customer-orientation, helpfulness, decency, collaboration, refraining from discrimination, etc.
6. Professionalism / accountability: Professionalism does not conclude the list of core values on the grounds that it is considered the least important value, but because it encompasses the aforementioned core values. Professionalism entails conduct appropriate to a civil servant. It also implies that civil servants not only need to perform their duties in an appropriate manner (in a “technical sense”); they also need to act with integrity in an ethical sense and should be held accountable for their actions. This in turn encompasses the ability to act (simultaneously) in accordance with the aforementioned core values and, in addition, to autonomously act in accordance with the spirit of the law in situations not covered by the (following) specific rules.

Section II: Specific standards of conduct

A great share of the Member states have already determined most of the specific standards mentioned underneath. For those countries who did not cover some of these topics it may be recommended that they consider doing. These specific standards of conduct for a number of particular issues should be regarded as derivatives or more detailed specifications of the general core values mentioned in the previous section. They relate to rules covering a number of issues that each Member State will almost certainly wish to implement.

• Handling information / confidentiality / freedom of speech

By virtue of their duties civil servants are frequently aware of information about issues, facts and circumstances that they know – or should realize – needs to be treated as confidential. Many national governments have introduced regulations and/or legislation which include provisions that either prohibit the disclosure of information of this nature by civil servants, or at least impose an obligation on them to treat the information made available to them in the performance of their duties with due care. However it is important to remember that civil servants are also members of the public, as a result of which they also enjoy all the concomitant rights guaranteed by the constitution. It should be realized that the fact that civil servants have entered into government employment certainly does not imply that they have relinquished their fundamental rights. For example, freedom of speech is a fundamental right in all EU Member States – and a right which extends to all members of the public and civil servants. However, this is without prejudice to the need for civil servants to pay due heed to certain limits in exercising their fundamental rights, or to their accountability for contraventions of those limits. For example, in exercising their right to freedom of speech civil servants may not give cause to a situation in which the appropriate discharge of their duties or the appropriate operation of the administrative service – to the extent that this depends on the discharge of their duties – is no longer reasonably assured. Moreover civil servants are under the obligation to treat secret information they receive in connection with their duties as confidential. Within this context particular care is also required in contacts with the press and parliament.

• Acceptance of gifts or favours

In some societies it may be generally-accepted custom for private individuals to offer each other a present or gift in certain situations. This custom is also common in the business community. The giver may wish to thank a civil servant, improve the relationship, influence the official – or possibly require something in exchange. Consequently accepting a gift may put a civil servant’s integrity at risk. For this reason gifts may never simply be accepted – or, on occasion, may not be accepted at all. It is essential that civil servants can always maintain their independence. Accepting a gift is permissible solely when this independence is not at risk.
A number of (procedural) principles should be observed so as to avoid civil servants from becoming dependent on others:

- Regulations governing civil servants’ outside activities, where relevant. Regulations of this nature might include the following provisions:

• an obligation to declare (all) outside activities;
• the classification of the permissibility of these outside activities;
• the prohibition of outside activities that pose risks to an appropriate performance of their duties or an appropriate operation of the public service;
• records are kept of any outside activities that are permitted;
• the disclosure of the management’s outside activities

- Regulations governing civil servants’ financial interests.

Regulations of this nature might include the following provisions:

• an obligation to declare the civil servant’s financial interests while respecting the relevant legislation, including legislation on personal data protection;
• the management’s consideration of the declared financial interests in terms of potential risks to an appropriate performance of the civil servant’s duties or an appropriate operation of the public service;
• the prohibition of financial interests that pose a risk to an appropriate performance of their duties or an appropriate operation of the public service;
• records are kept of any financial interests that do not pose a risk;
• the disclosure of the management’s financial interests while respecting the relevant legislation, including legislation on personal data protection, on personal data protection.
   

-  Regulations to counter what is referred to as ‘revolving door employment .

The term ‘revolving door employment’ is used to refer to situations in which a former civil servant is engaged by the official’s former ministry immediately or shortly after resigning from employment and then continues to work for the ministry (and carry out more or less the same duties), for example in self-employment or via an external consultancy. This conduct readily gives rise to an impression of favouritism, unfair competition or the semblance of a conflict of interest. Consequently this construction poses a hazard to the integrity of the public administration.
To prevent conduct of this nature public administrations should introduce regulations which prohibit persons resigning from public service from being engaged, in any manner whatsoever, by the relevant ministry for the provision of services as an external contractor during the period of two years after their resignation. In addition, during this same period they may not be involved in contracted work carried out by an agency they join after leaving public service. Exceptions to this rule would be permitted solely in the event that agreements have been reached with civil servants within the scope of the termination of their employment which stipulate that they will continue to carry out work for the ministry for the specific and agreed period of time required to enable them to find new employment.

• Use of public resources, equipment and property

Civil servants make use of a wide variety of resources during the performance of their duties, including time and money but also company equipment such as (mobile) phones, computers, printers, faxes, and photocopiers. Concerning the time factor it’s important to stress that employees should work in an efficient way and don’t misuse office-time for private gain, as so called ‘cuckoo workers’ do. Concerning the use of office equipment it’s important to stress that it is made available on the principle that it will be used solely for the civil servants’ work. Some of this equipment is also used away from their place of work; for example, civil servants may take a mobile telephone or a laptop with them in the field, or to their homes. However, any equipment they take home may be used solely for their work. A restricted amount of use for private purposes is nevertheless permitted, provided that this does not degenerate into misuse. It would be advisable for public administrations to draw up ‘house rules’ for the use of public property and equipment.
 

• Use of email, intranet and Internet facilities

Civil servants can make use of email, intranet and Internet facilities during their work; these email, intranet and Internet systems are made available to them in the performance of their duties, and consequently they are to be used for tasks arising from those duties. Nevertheless limited use of these systems for private purposes is permitted – provided that this does not disrupt the everyday work, is not detrimental to the performance of their duties, and that the systems are not used for prohibited purposes. Employees are not permitted to use email systems to transmit messages with a pornographic, racist, discriminatory, insulting or offensive content, or to use them for (sexual) harassment. In addition, emails that incite hate and/or violence are also forbidden. Employees are not permitted to visit Internet sites with pornographic, racist, discriminatory, insulting or offensive content, or to download and/or distribute material of such a nature from those sites. Records may be kept of email and Internet use. And the use of fire-walls may be considered preventing this.

• Purchasing and contracting

As the stakes are often very high for suppliers to the public service –it is possible that they may employ more than just the quality of their product in an endeavour to persuade a civil servant to make use of their services. Decisions to purchase goods and services should be taken in independence. Civil servants have a duty to avoid purchasing and contracting decisions from being influenced by promises of gifts, etc.
 

- Conflicts of interest
Conflicts of interest should be avoided by involving a number of persons in purchasing decision-making. Civil servants who are acquainted with the supplier outside work should always leave the decision-making to others. In general, public administrations have introduced rules which separate responsibilities for budget management.
In addition, civil servants are not permitted to participate in contracting and supplying goods and services for the public administration.

- Financial threshold for the mandatory European tendering procedure
Purchases or contracts with an estimated purchase price of € 154,014 and above governed by the European tendering regulations as laid down in the relevant EU directives. Public administrations may employ their own tendering regulations for amounts below this threshold.

Section III: Implementing, promoting and stimulating integrity

For implementing, promoting and stimulating the integrity values and standards, the following provisions are designed to foster the culture that assists in promoting better standards of integrity within the organisation.

• Recruitment

The selection of staff is a crucial factor for enhancing integrity in the public sector. Part of the selection process should also cover the knowledge of ethics and integrity required by candidates to work in the public service, for example the use of ethical dilemmas in assessments. Information on ethics and integrity should be made available to all future entrants in particular on the way they are required to behave to perform ethically. Part of the selection process should also cover the knowledge of ethics and integrity required by candidates to work in the public service, for example the use of ethical dilemmas in assessments.

• Training

Specific education and training modules should be developed and offered within the organization. This is not only important for induction of new entrants but in particular for managers who require such training as handling ethical questions and tackling moral dilemmas is extremely difficult. That makes training a necessity.

The ideal training programme is a mix of ethical issues, procedural rules and practical situations. Ethical behaviour cannot be achieved through one-stop training courses. Any strategy in the field of training must be open-ended, all-embracing, repetitive and must address all employees during all phases within their careers. A number of countries have good practice models here. In the UK, the Cabinet Office provides induction training that is undertaken at departmental level. Each department has a number of ‘nominated officers’ to whom civil servants can go if they are concerned that they are being asked to act in a way which is inconsistent with the Civil Service Code.  The Cabinet Office is running training seminars for nominated officers which will cover the Code in detail, and their role. The Centre for Management and Policy Studies (CMPS) runs courses covering the Civil Service Code for officials and for Ministers.

Member States may also consider to offer better quality advice to civil servants on what they should do in cases of conflicts of interest (practical dilemma training). Also, Member States may do more to promote high ethical standards of leaders through special training for this group. This is the more important since new developments in the field of decentralization of HRM are most likely to further increase the responsibilities of leaders. 

• Mobility

A policy of mobility at regular times during the civil servants career can play an important role in promoting ethics and integrity in the public sector. Potential conflicts of interests need to be taken into account in the mobility procedures and practices in order to avoid any suspicion that a civil servant might be influenced. There is some evidence that most cases of corruption and fraud occur in the sectors/areas of public procurement, construction, police and health. In their fight against unethical behavior, Member States should focus attention on these sectors. In these sectors, in particular, job rotation is an effective means of preventing unethical behavior.

A number of countries have good practices here, where it is becoming a requirement that Senior Civil Servants move into new jobs after for instance four years and/or Civil Servants at more junior grades are encouraged to change jobs at regular intervals for career development purposes. 

• Communication

If an organisation  fails to pay enough attention to integrity, the risk of breaches of propriety increase. Without communication employees can get to think that integrity is not considered as very important. Without clear, specific and well communicated values, standards and regulations employees don’t know what behaviour is expected from them and how integrity is maintained within the organization.

Attention should be focussed on integrity on a regular basis, through various means of communication. The importance of integrity can be stressed via guidance published on departmental intranets/internet sites, through dilemma training and educational workshops as well as through regular staff appraisals and job evaluations. Member States should also test additional and new forms of awareness raising techniques. Especially, since values are changing, the communication of integrity systems and codes of ethics must be an ongoing task. A logical consequence is that regular testing of attitudes and values becomes more important.

• Leadership

As mentioned above is leadership a crucial element of implementing and maintaining ethical conduct in the workplace. The role of the manager is twofold. First of all they have to be a moral person who does the right thing. The manager sets the example. That means that manager’s behaviour will be looked at, followed and copied. But it is not enough just doing the right thing themselves. The manager also has to be a moral leader; that means for example actively communicating the standards required for ethical behaviour, insuring new entrants are made aware of ethical standards and guidelines, rewarding good behaviour and sanctioning bad behaviour.

Furthermore it is important to emphasize the evolving nature of the manager’s role as they move up the hierarchy to more responsible and accountable positions. This means that as the manager’s role evolves as he or she progresses through the organisation the nature of his or her role vis a vis ethics and integrity also evolves. While all public servants have a role in maintaining and supporting standards in ethics and integrity, the manager has to take a lead role in further developing ethical standards and guidelines and in shaping the policy to adequately address the challenges that arise in the field.

Finally the head of the organisation has the principal leadership role in setting and maintaining standards for the organisation and in particular for the top team.       

Section IV: Methods and procedures to report - integrity related - offences

• Confidential integrity counsellor (CIC)

Situations that are not (exhaustively) covered by regulations always occur. In such situations it is advisable for civil servants to consult with a colleague or supervisor – or, in instances in which this is considered to be less desirable, with a confidential integrity counsellor. The counsellor can discuss the situation with them, in confidentiality, and can advise them as to how to approach an integrity issue. In addition, civil servants can also be confronted with a situation in which they observe others in the organization breaching the rules or standards. When this occurs, the question is then: What should they do? In some instances they are under the obligation to report the incident. In situations in which an offence is committed by a civil servant the civil servant observing the offence is under the obligation to report it to the public prosecutor; in the event of a breach of integrity they can report the incident to their manager. In all these situations civil servants can contact a confidential integrity counsellor for advice. Regarding the position of the CIC within the organization, from an approachability point of view it’s advisable appointing someone who doesn’t function either too high or low in the hierarchy, and it may also be considered worth appointing an additional and external CIC as well. 
 

• Reporting procedure integrity breaches

In the majority of the EU Member States Criminal Codes oblige civil servants and public bodies to report to the public prosecutor any offences they discover which have been committed by civil servants, including the corruption of civil servants. It is possible that during the performance of their duties civil servants may come across other irregularities which, albeit not criminal offences committed by civil servants, may  constitute a breach of ethical  standards or other similar rules – and which can, on occasion, cause major damage (including  damage to reputation) to the public service or administration. A prudent civil servant should not overlook a breach of such rules, but instead bring it to the attention of the appropriate authorities. In view of this it is appropriate in the interests of good administration to take measures to reinforce the statutory obligation to report offences committed by civil servants to those authorities. This obligation should be supplemented by a scheme that e,ables civil servants to report internal breaches of integrity to their superiors without detriment to their position. In doing so an administarative organization is ofefred an opportunity to carry out in-house investigations of breach of integrity, impose sanctions on the perpetretor(s) in the event that those breaches are proven, and carry out a critical review of internal administrative procedures in an endeavour to avoid a recurrence of a similar abuse in the future.

A scheme of this nature could encompass the following:

• a definition of the forms of conduct that are (must be) reported;
• whether reporting is mandatory or optional;
• the authority to whom, in the first instance, the misconduct is to be reported (internal report);
• the authority to whom the conduct is to be reported in the event that the officer who should be contacted in the first instance is disqualified (because, for example, the officer is a party to the conspiracy);
• the appointment of a system of confidential integrity counsellors;
• an obligation for the competent authority within the organization to investigate the allegation and to report the results from the investigation to the informant within a reasonable period of time;
• an opportunity for the civil servant to report the breach to an external and independent agency (ethic committee) in the event that the authorities process or assess the internal report in an incorrect manner according to the informant;
• this agency / committee investigates the report and advices the responsible administrative body;
• legal protection for civil servants who report a breach in good faith and in accordance with the procedure, and for confidential counsellors who perform their duties in accordance with the regulations

• Sanctions

Civil servants who breach the regulations laid down in the code of conduct or neglect the need to maintain their integrity in some other manner are deemed to have failed in their duties. In certain circumstances a civil servant’s conduct outside working hours can also be deemed to constitute failure in their duties; this refers to conduct which has caused damage to the interests of the public service or has rendered their integrity an issue with respect to the performance of their duties. This can result in disciplinary measures.
In situations in which there are suspicions that an offence has been committed by a civil servant, for example the acceptance of a bribe, the incident will also be reported to the Public Prosecutions Department. In such situations it is possible that the disciplinary measures will be accompanied by a court conviction.