The Public Service Must Deal With Ethical Dilemmas

THE challenge for the developmental state involves formulating national policies, delivering public services, developing markets, provisioning justice and security, and protecting the rights of all people.

In a state where these processes are performed effectively, development succeeds and lives improve.In reality, however, many countries struggle to implement basic institutional functions, let alone well and with speed.A system in which corruption flourishes and ethical conduct is not upheld leads to a situation in which the provision of essential services is compromised. Recent allegations of corruption involving high-level public servants suggests that the government ought to rethink what constitutes ethical conduct on the part of civil servants.Such a discussion cuts right to what ought to be a professional civil service.Additionally, these recent incidences, involving senior government officials hits at the centre of what constitutes the moral and ethical debate about our public service, including its ability to deliver efficient public services.On the whole, they do suggest that the most serious threats to good governance in the civil service won’t necessarily come from the venality or greed on the part of individuals in high places, but that these stems from the imperfect systemic and institutional arrangements in the government system. What this debate suggest is that the hard questions about what constitutes ethical conduct in the public service will not be answered through ongoing court cases and suspensions of individuals in high places. But it certainly does appear that existing codes of ethics governing the conduct of civil servants are not sufficient in dealing with the scourge of unethical conduct on the part of our civil servants. And it begs the question as to what we may consider to be a potential panacea to this problem. In the main, the only sustainable means through which government can deal with these ethical matters is to open a discussion about what it means to be ethical civil servants.Second, rules must be respected. One would have expected the Prime Minister to lead such a discussion. And there are urgent matters that ought to enjoy the immediate attention of the Prime Minister. However, if government, or the Prime Minister in particular as the custodian of the civil service, considers it normal for senior civil servants to have second and third jobs as politicians and businesspeople, they are without doubt providing fertile ground for unethical conduct to take root in the system.By nurturing such a culture through indifference, our government has allowed a worse case scenario in which these civil servants cum businessmen effect business transactions with the very same government (including parastatals) for which they work as fulltime employees.Senior civil servants or politicians should not have an incestuous business relationship with government and SOEs.The current cases of alleged corruption involving well-placed individuals speak about this incestuous relationship that government has allowed to take root within our public service.The case to be made is that if the existing rules are not sufficient in dealing with how far civil servants, including politicians, can go in their business dealings with government or parastatals, new rules must be created in order to deal with this problem. If the existing rules are sufficient, they ought to be enforced without fear or favour.What we do know now is that some of these civil servants and politicians don’t declare their business dealings with government. Yet these are only revealed after they have been caught.Therefore, if the system is not efficient in dealing with those individuals who don’t declare, it does open opportunities for cheating to continue unabated.Similarly, it also leaves more room for many to use their senior positions in government as mere business-plans with the very same government for which they work.The issue in the main is thus not necessarily the fanfare that surrounds the arrests or suspension of individuals, but what ought to be done is to highlight the unethical nature of senior civil servants who masquerade as businesspeople and politicians. It is here where the case for ethical public servants ought to begin. * Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari is a PhD fellow in political science at the University of Paris- Panthéon Sorbonne, France.