Public Administration and Ethics

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Public Administration and Ethics

• Week 10

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McCallions conflict of interest

• http//www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/
  1063908--hazel-s-new-legacy-a-hurricane-of-conflic
  t?bn1
• Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion engaged in a
  very real conflict of interest when she secretly
  promoted a land deal that could have put millions
  of dollars into her sons pocket.

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Ethics and Public Administration

• In Canada, and other liberal democracies, the
  1970s saw the rise of concerns about public
  sector ethics.

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Ethics and Public Administration

• New Public Management raises new concerns.
• Civil servants responsible for results not
  process, has led to focus on values rather than
  rules.
• Alternative service delivery raises question of
  whether private partners share public sector
  values.

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Complex Responsibilities

• The public service has many responsibilities and
  commitments
• to the public
• to the laws that govern its powers and
  management
• to the Ministers who are the political heads of
  departments.

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Conflicting responsibilities

• These multiple responsibilities can create
  tensions between the duty of the public service
  to serve the government and its ethical
  obligation to promote the public interest.

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Ethical issues

• conflicts of interest
• confidentiality of information
• political partisanship

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How can we, or should we, encourage ethical
behaviour in the public service?
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Strengthening public sector ethics

• codes of conduct
• training and education
• role models
• an attentive public (citizens, NGOs, mass media)
• However, it is clear that rules and guidelines
  about process still will need to play a role.

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Tait Report A Strong Foundation

• Task Force on Public Service Values and Ethics,
  1996
• called for development of public service code of
  conduct

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Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service

• In 2003 a Values and Ethics Code for the Public
  Service was prepared by the Treasury Board, and
  it came into force on September 1, 2003.
• The Code sets out Public Service values as well
  as Conflict of Interest and Post-Employment
  Measures.

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Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service

• Public Service Values
• Democratic Values
• Professional Values
• Ethical Values
• People Values
• http//www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/tb_851/ve
  c-cve-eng.pdf

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IPAC, A Public Servants Commitments

• Institute of Public Administration of Canada
• A strong Commitment to Personal Integrity
• A strong Commitment to Democratic Governance
• A strong Commitment to Respectfulness
• A strong Commitment to Continual Learning and
  Innovation
• A strong Commitment to Critical Reflection on
  Ethics and Values

14
Sponsorship Scandal

• What was the sponsorship scandal?
• How was it uncovered?
• CBC Archives, May 8, 2002
• CBC News In-depth Federal Sponsorship Scandal

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Sponsorship Scandal

• then former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, his
  chief of staff, Jean Pelletier, the deputy
  minister of public works and government services
  Canada, Ranald Quail, a hands-on minister of
  public works and government services Canada
  (hereafter PWGSC), Alfonso Gagliano, and a
  middle-level entrepreneurial manager in charge of
  advertising in that same department, Charles
  (Chuck) Guité, were all responsible for allowing
  the sponsorship program to be run irresponsibly
  and without proper accountability safeguards
  (Greene and Shugarman, 2006 220).

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Gomery Final Report

• Recommendation The Government should adopt
  legislation to entrench into law a Public Service
  Charter.
• statement of the essential values that all public
  servants could be expected to embrace
• a charter of the rights and obligations of public
  servants and as a symbol of the Governments
  undertaking to give new respect to the public
  service

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Federal Ethics Counselor

• First appointed 1994
• To report to Prime Ministers Office

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Federal Ethics Commissioner

• Appointed in 2004
• Greater independence from Prime Minister
• Reported directly to Parliament
• Bernard Shapiro appointed as first Commissioner
  in 2004, resigned in 2007.

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Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics
Commissioner

• Created in 2007, replacing the Ethics
  Commissioner created in 2004.
• Mary Dawson was appointed as the first
  Commissioner in 2007.
• Office administers the Conflict of Interest Act
  and the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of
  the House of Commons.

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Conflict of Interest Act

• Passed in 2006, coming into force in 2007.
• A summary of the Act for public office holders
  including ministers, parliamentary secretaries,
  ministerial staff and all full-time Governor in
  Council appointees such as deputy ministers,
  heads of Crown corporations and members of
  federal boards.
• Conflict of Interest public office holders are
  in a conflict of interest when they exercise an
  official power, duty or function that provides an
  opportunity to further their private interests or
  those of their relatives or friends, or that
  improperly furthers another persons private
  interests.

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Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act

• Passed in 2005, came into force in 2007.
• The Act provides a means for employees in the
  federal public sector to disclose information
  that they believe could show that a wrongdoing
  has been committed or is about to be committed in
  the federal public sector, or that they were
  asked to commit a wrongdoing. The Act protects
  public servant disclosers against reprisal.
• Created the Office of the Public Sector Integrity
  Commissioner of Canada (replacing the former
  Public Service Integrity Officer created in
  2001).

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Public Sector Integrity Commissioner

• The Commissioner is an Agent of Parliament
  appointed by resolution of the Senate and House
  of Commons. He/she reports directly to
  Parliament.
• Under investigation by the Auditor General,
  Public Sector Integrity Commissioner Christiane
  Ouimet resigned in 2010.
• December 2010, AG released her report critical
  of Integrity Commissioner.

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Controversy over the Integrity Commissioner

• Former Integrity Commissioner Christiane Ouimet
  modeled many of the behaviours that she was
  charged with driving out of the public service
• abusing her staff, taking reprisals against a
  former employee, and demonstrating 'reluctance'
  to find wrongdoing
• failing to do her job. The Auditor General
  reported that Ouimet failed to fulfill her
  mandate in three years she found zero cases of
  wrongdoing and failed to protect a single
  whistleblower from reprisals
• when the Auditor General's investigation into her
  conduct was nearing completion, Ouimet negotiated
  a 500,000 settlement, including a gag order
  seemingly designed to protect her (and the
  government) from criticism or consequences
• displaying a disregard for our democratic
  institutions by refusing for months to respond to
  a Parliamentary committee as it tried to summon
  her to explain her actions.
• http//fairwhistleblower.ca/no-more-ouimets

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Protection for whistleblowers?

• Despite the Public Servants Disclosure Protection
  Act and the creation of the Public Sector
  Integrity Commissioner, many complain that there
  is still not sufficient protection for
  whistleblowers in the civil service.
• Critics include
• FAIR (Federal Accountability Initiative for
  Reform)
• Canadians for Accountability
• For a critique of the act, see
  http//fairwhistleblower.ca/psdpa/psdpa_critique.h
  tml
• One example of the lack of protection
  http//www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/ar
  ticle/1038934--effectively-silencing-canada-s-whis
  tleblowers

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Conservative Government and Ethics

• http//fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/05/29/har
  per-lets-the-ethics-slide/

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Corruption Rankings

• Transparency International Corruption
  Perceptions Index
• Global Integrity Global Integrity Report
• http//www.thestar.com/news/world/article/986663--
  canada-slips-in-anti-corruption-rankings