Introduction : Civil Service Ethics for UPSC Exams

Introduction

Civil service ethics is more than the mere definition of actions complying or not complying with the law. The minimum criteria of civil service ethics are defined by legislation. Civil service ethics can be influenced in many other ways. Considering values and ethics as one of the corner stones of civil service ensures a high level of operations in State administration.

The values and ethics of State administration are being emphasised in a new way due to the development of the 1990s. The governments of both the OECD countries and the European Union Member States are increasingly worried that changes in administration may decrease the trust of citizens in administrative systems and increase corruption. The worry is topical also in Finland, although the studies conducted indicate that Finland has the second lowest corruption figures in a comparison of approximately one hundred States.

Continuous change within administration also requires a continuous evaluation of the operating culture of the authorities and the behaviour of civil servants. Established operating procedures do not present answers to all situations.

For example, the increase of market orientation means, i.a., that an agency is expected to acquire part of its funding by selling services (service operations subject to a fee). This requires not only knowledge of the values and operating procedures of the business world but also a deep awareness of values central to civil service. It raises for example questions on what kind of operating procedures are used in contacts outside the State administration, how tenders for public procurement are acquired and handled, how values are included in practical operations and management or which factors can endanger confidence in the actions of an authority or a civil servant in an individual agency. Every situation wherein which a civil servant has to consider the appropriateness of his actions requires consideration and the weighing of different issues with respect to each other as well as an awareness of norms. This involves choices relating to ethical behaviour.

The purpose of this Working Group memorandum is not to give answers to questions on actions that are or are not permissible for an agency or a civil servant. Although the Working Group has also considered these practical questions and has had extensive discussions on them during the course of its work, the objective of the work is different. The focus is rather on an understanding of the values and on good governance based on them. This objective is easier to achieve by constructing and strengthening the ethics infrastructure so that the framework is in order and that confidence in the operations of State civil servants can be ensured as well as possible. The citizens have to be able to trust civil servants and the authorities, while at the same time, the operations have to be productive, effective and efficient.

As the parties exercising public power, it is the responsibility of an authority, an individual agency and civil servant to act so as to fulfil the requirements of impartiality, independence and objectivity. Loss of confidence is often associated with acts, but it can just as well be due to omissions. Confidence is measured more and more by an outsider’s view of the actions, even though, as a basis of evaluation, it is insufficient and problematic. Merely the fact that the operations look good cannot be considered a guarantee of good governance. What is important is that the operations actually fulfil the requirements of good governance and are appropriately justified.

This memorandum will look for ways of promoting high quality civil service ethics. The aim of the report is to present an overall picture of the values on which our civil service ethics is based. The report also contains the basis central norms. The empirical section of the report presents the results of the ethics questionnaire survey of the agencies. The Working Group has evaluated the current state of civil service ethics mainly from the point of view of the sufficiency of the ethics infrastructure and based its suggestions for certain further measures on this.

The memorandum is not intended to cover all the ethical questions of the public sector, but it has purposely been limited to the point of view of civil servants and authorities. Also, questions concerning political decision-making and the related interface of civil-servant drafting have been excluded from the study. Nor does the memorandum deal with the problematics relating to the operations of State business enterprises and State companies or the state of indirect State administration and the related ethical questions. The starting point is the actions of civil servants of central State administration and the related ethical questions. The work is connected to the ethics work of the OECD Public Management Committee (PUMA).

Courtesy: UPSC

Online Crash Course for UPSC PRE Exam

Printed Study Material for UPSC Pre General Studies (Paper-1)

Go Back to Main Page