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Context
and Structure of the Public Service
Currently,
the region -- despite pockets of progress -- has been declining economically
and socially, as shown by various fiscal, health and other indicators.
However, since the early 1990s, many countries have committed themselves
to democratisation and are trying to respond to calls for good governance
and better public administration. As a result, one major issue of concern
has been building up public service integrity, accountability and transparency.
There is wide consensus that unchecked corruption is impeding socio-economic
development and eroding confidence in governance institutions. Managing
the conduct of public servants, thus stemming corruption from the "demand"
side, is a major part of building up the capacities of public administration
to better serve the public and further the goals of development.
The
study shows that in all participating countries, the issue of ethics
and the management of conduct in the public service has recently been
addressed in research and programme development. While it may be too
early for an in-depth evaluation of specific programmes, the countries
indicate that much has already been accomplished in the way these issues
are now addressed and a forum for public discourse and programme development
is provided, particularly within the past two or three years. In the
study countries, some ethics campaigns have been conducted through public
exhortations, codes of conduct exercises, etc. Some countries are also
beginning to push for better ethical standards in other segments of
society beyond the government through introducing private sector and
NGO codes of conduct. This area seems to be particularly promising since
the provision and maintenance of an effective public service ethics
infrastructure is only one component of the general moral tone in any
society. A way forward with public service ethics campaigns at the national
level recommended by this study could be:
·
A clear focus of public service ethics campaigns, to target certain
groups, mobilise adequate resources, and spend the time and effort to
better communicate the campaign goals to the public servants. Ideally,
this should be embedded into a broader client-orientation strategy for
the public administration since many corruption perception studies persistently
show a high degree of mistrust by the public of their governments.
As
described in Chapter 2 of Volume I of the Project Report, the countries
in the region have the legacy of colonial administrations which largely
shaped their current legal systems, organisational structures, and administrative
systems. The European colonial powers have bequeathed a state structure
that has given preference to extracting resources and benefits for those
in power over serving the local population. Since independence, the
countries have been trying to transform this situation, in some cases,
however, set back by the continuous rule of single party systems. The
process seems to be long term, and setbacks have to be taken into account
and compensated for; this fact is reflected in the present strategies
found in the participating countries to further develop and sustain
their public service ethics infrastructures, 40 years or more after
political independence.
As
part of getting a sense of government organisation and administrative
structures, the study asked for basic data on the profile of the public
service workforce, salary structures, and managing agencies. Many governments
were unable to provide basic figures and statistics because they are
not being collected systematically or are inaccessible. Given the resource
constraints that many governments are facing, this is not an unexpected
situation. However, since information is the foundation for any policy-making
or programming, managing the workforce and its performance, and for
evaluating the capacity of public agencies, it is very important to
ensure that it is collected and distributed in a timely fashion. Central
findings of the study in this context are:
·
The capacity to collect basic public service statistics needs to be
greatly boosted to manage not only the conduct of but all other aspects
of the public service.
·
In most countries, the public service salary structures need to be improved,
both in terms of adjusting the compression of the levels, in keeping
up with inflation, and in comparison with the private sector. This is
a difficult issue to resolve, especially when resources to deal with
the situation are severely limited. However, since the situation in
the study countries indicate that salary structures differ by the rank
of a public servant and by the sector in which he or she works, one
way forward could be to target and limit reforms rather than applying
them across the board.
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Guiding
the Conduct of Public Servants
Under
the theme of guidance for the public servants in how they are to conduct
themselves, the frameworks of core values, specified legal and administrative
standards, ethics advice and counselling, and legislative prohibitions
and restrictions in place in each country were examined. The individual
responses reveal that:
·
Values and standards are insufficiently communicated after basic induction
training of the public servants. However, there is consensus among researchers
and practitioners that any attempt to enhance ethical, responsible and
responsive professional performance of public administrators needs to
be backed up by continuous staff training and regular reminder activities
on what a service-oriented, reliable and accountable public administration
is about. Current standards in many countries do not sufficiently address
new areas of concern such as the use of credit cards, official travel,
movement to the private sector, post-employment, and lobbying. Maybe
these have not yet become pressing areas of concern in the countries
in the region, but they are gaining more prominence in other parts of
the world.
·
One age-old concern, that of nepotism or inappropriate employment and
supervision of family members, also does not seem to be adequately addressed.
Nepotism, tribalism and patrimonialism have been identified as a major
impediment to professionalism in many parts of the developing world
and should be very important targets for reform. · The prevention of
corruption or even inadvertent violation of standards have not been
given proper attention through ethics advice or counselling. Usually,
compliance with minimum standards begins with an adequate knowledge
of their existence and provisions. Not many countries have designated,
trained specialists to assist managers and employees about dealing with
corruption provoking situations or ethical quandries.
·
The sample countries show that there are difficulties in applying existing
criminal code provisions against corruption or specific anti-corruption
laws due to the complexity of the texts and the onerous burden of proof
in a crime that is not often visible. Again, the extent of this difficulty
is hard to assess as enforcement and case statistics do not seem to
be kept systematically.
·
The countries often have in place values, standards, and laws that criminally
condemn corruption, unethical acts, and incidents of maladministration.
However, they are sometimes outdated and do not sufficiently cover technical
developments or social trends. Also, even those values and standards
that are in place are not adequately communicated to the public servants
or the public in general. This situation leads to a recommendation that
training and communication efforts would be a starting basis for highlighting
the need for better behaviour. Furthermore, a simplification and harmonisation
of the existing texts and routine collection of pertinent data may be
a step in the right direction. The study findings suggest the guidance
of conduct for public servants as one primary area for further programme
activity.
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Managing
the Conduct of Public Servants
Managing
the conduct of public servants entails having in place -- among other
systems -- an overall national integrity strategy, sound human resources
management practices, and comprehensive disclosure procedures. Essentially,
managing the conduct of public servants means being able to monitor
their behaviour and being able to detect any systemic failures that
allow high degrees of misconduct in order to take prompt remedial action.
Although
just over half of the sample countries espouse a national integrity
strategy or broader ethics or anti-corruption policies, few seem to
have coordinating strategies in place. Furthermore, few of them have
the capacity to perform risk assessments to better target their efforts,
to analyse systemic failures through seeking trends in criminal and
disciplinary cases, or to provide a checklist of prevention strategies.
This situation is not too surprising when viewed in the light of the
overall lack of systematic collection of basic public service information.
Although undertaking these activities may be difficult at first, the
potential for payoff of carrying out such a broad analysis is very high.
The following recommendations can be made on the basis of the project
findings:
·
Fair and transparent human resources policies and practices are the
foundations for creating a professional and ethical public service.
The majority of the national consultants did not express a high degree
of confidence in the existing systems. They did not see merit playing
a large role in the selection process, nor the public service leadership
providing a good example to the rest of the service. And in cases of
misconduct, although disciplinary procedures are in place, they are
not well known by supervisors or managers and probably therefore seldom
used.
·
In situations where petty corruption and lax performance have become
a habitual part of the working environment, reform cannot really begin
until some disciplinary actions have taken place. This requires training
programmes for managers and supervisors and the provision of protection
measures for those public servants willing to report on criminal or
other serious misconduct of their peers. A culture of professionalism
should be fostered through sound human resources management.
·
A good disclosure system can be the basis for successfully enforcing
criminal and other legal anti-corruption provisions. It is very difficult
to prove illicit gains without baseline information of the assets and
interests of public officials. Although most of the study countries
have disclosure requirements for their public officials, upon closer
examination, they are not as comprehensive or detailed enough to be
able to capture all the possible violations of prohibited areas or conflicts
of interest.
·
Also, there did not seem to be systematic verification in place. Managing
disclosures is an area where technical assistance can be sought from
those countries where workable systems are in place. It is a matter
of adapting them to the needs and levels of the country concerned.
·
In order to monitor how public servants are behaving, rather than relying
on hearsay or anecdotes, it is essential to have in place systems for
collecting and analysing basic information. Furthermore, it seems to
be crucial to provide basic human resources management and disclosure
procedures that create confidence in the public service structure.
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Control
of Conduct of Public Servants
Measures for guiding and managing the behaviour of public servants
require enforcement procedures to be effective. Enforcement serves two
purposes: sanction of violations of established standards and deterrent
for others contemplating similar actions.
In
this endeavour, complaints or reporting procedures are the starting
points. However, the survey results indicate that they are not widely
known in many of the study countries, making corrupt and unethical acts
difficult to report. The project findings suggest the following recommendations:
·
Reporting procedures, both internally for public servants and externally
for the general public, need to be simplified and widely publicised
in order to function properly.
·
For those people who choose to report wrongdoing, adequate protection
needs to be in place. Again, although whistle-blower protection may
exist in writing, there seem to be insufficient practical measures in
place such as transfers of work and anonymity to really protect those
that expose corruption or ethical violations. This study identified
a need to strengthen such practical measures. Independent oversight
agencies such as the Ombudsmen, Inspectors General, Auditors General,
etc. need to have the institutional capacities to carry out their mandates.
Based on the limited information gathered by the study, it is hard to
gauge their capacities in terms of staffing and budget levels. However,
comments by the national consultants would indicate that they are inadequate.
These institutions need to have the manpower, equipment, and training
to function adequately. Similar observations can also be made about
frontline criminal investigative agencies that usually investigate corruption
such as the police.
·
In terms of financial control, very few countries show that internal
and external audit reports are widely circulated or made public. Without
wide circulation, it is difficult to build up the consensus for pushing
for changes. Few countries actually seem to prosecute corruption, either
because of the difficulties involved in proving the crime or a lack
of political will. This would be the final step in enforcement, and
without a clear demonstration of will to take this final step, the other
preceding steps are likely to lose their importance. Actions to improve
the situation can involve simplifying the existing criminal legislation,
considering options for shifting the burden of proof, and providing
assistance to public prosecutors in carrying out their work.
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Role
of Non-Governmental Actors
Given
the development of private sector and civil society organisations in
the region, the countries show a high level of activity. Both sectors,
however, still need to be encouraged through resources and capacity-building
in order to provide public scrutiny of government operations and performance.
Ultimately, they need to reset the balance in the governance equation
of a country through demanding accountability, transparency, and ultimately,
change. In this context, the following recommendations can be made:
·
Governments need to be persuaded that it is in their interest to have
a strong and effective private sector and civil society. They need to
enhance their transparency by sharing information about their activities.
Although this is already being done to some degree, harnessing technological
developments in the field of e-governance and publicly accessible electronic
information systems could possibly augment these present efforts further.
·
At the same time, the public reporting and checking function of private
media and press views are needed to ensure that government communications
do not become mere propaganda. The survey indicates that, in many study
countries, the press is still not entirely free to express its views
or operate without government interference.
·
The press need a high degree of freedom but should also demonstrate
a sense of professional responsibility to inform the public without
undue bias.
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Outlook
The
public service, as an institution, has a valuable contribution to make
towards the development of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Among the
efforts that have been made to modernise and revitalise the public service,
more attention has been paid to the ethical dimensions during recent
years. The sample countries in the study indicate that a planned and
co-ordinated approach to enhancing ethics, both within the public service
and outside, would yield the best results.
To
conclude, this report recommends a two-pronged approach towards public
service ethics:
·
First, this report demonstrates that the encouragement of ethical conduct
on the part of public servants requires an active and persistent addressing
of pertinent issues from within and outside the public sector. Examples
of pressure from outside the public sector are found in a number of
study countries where newly-founded citizens groups have been calling
for more openness and accountability on the part of their governments.
·
Second, the findings of this study also suggest that the enhancement
of public service ethics will come as a by product of other public sector
reforms and improvements. It has been stated by the national consultants
and their interviewees that old and insufficient equipment, an inadequate
remuneration structure or power imbalances between the executive, legislative
and judiciary branches of government -- to name just a few examples
-- have contributed towards the deterioration of conduct in the public
service. Any reform attempts in these areas will, thus, also lead towards,
or at least facilitate, the enhancement of public service ethics.
The
recent steps for the enhancement of public service ethics in Africa,
and their progress, may provide lessons for other parts of the world.
What makes African examples particularly interesting for countries in
other developing regions is the fact that the administrative systems
in Africa often have a complex interface with coexisting regulatory
and welfare systems based on tradition, kinship, community and ethnicity.
In order to be successful, any attempt towards the improvement of the
public service has to keep these fragile and often conflicting relationships
in mind.
Ultimately,
ethics in the public service must be understood as an integral element
of the role of public administrations in the achievement of good governance.
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