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...public office is a trust, don't abuse it...
Code of Conduct at 20 years
1.0 Preamble
1.1 Public office is the bank of Public Trust. We need to be ethical to keep our integrity as managers of the people’s trust. Maintaining high ethical standards in government business is neither a luxury nor abstract ideal that cannot be attained. The world is increasingly becoming competitive and the pressure to put ethics into practice as public officers become even more pertinent.
1.2 The mandate of “establishing a high standard of morality in government business and ensuring that the actions and behavior of public officers conform to the highest standards of public morality and accountability”, raises the ethical threshold in government business. As the foremost Constitutional Institutional arrangement put in place, the Bureau intervenes in the anti-corruption effort of government at the levels of prevention, punishment and promotion of values. Putting the CCB mandate on a scale of priority, the weight points heavily on promotion of values as we shall come to see.
1.3 The establishment of a high standard of morality in government business is a big picture, a beautiful piece to behold, but it starts with the artist pencil sketching single foot prints, showing a route that leads to a destination.
1.4 The essence of a Code of Conduct for Public Officers is for the ethical standards delineated for public conduct to be enforced. The will and ability to enforce such standards lie in our ability as individual public officers to internalize the values of honesty, integrity, discipline, professionalism, justice, fairness, hard work, excellence in service, and responsible citizenship.
1.5 The way to do this is to put the public lens in our hearts, to search our actions, our decisions, our conduct, or behavior. This will keep us on track, focusing on public interest, giving account of our stewardship to the public who have entrusted us with the power or authority we are exercising.
1.6 In the words of Luther Hodges, former US Secretary of Commerce, “this matter of moral and ethical behavior in business or in government comes back finally to a personal situation”. Yes it is a personal choice. You choose to be ethical because the legal sanctions are not necessarily the motivation for ethical behaviour. This position is supported by Richard L. Kattel, a president of Citizens and South National Bank of Atlanta, when he said, that “all the laws in the world won’t prevent unethical conduct. It is a matter of personal integrity”.
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1.1 Public office is the bank of Public Trust. We need to be ethical to keep our integrity as managers of the people’s trust. Maintaining high ethical standards in government business is neither a luxury nor abstract ideal that cannot be attained. The world is increasingly becoming competitive and the pressure to put ethics into practice as public officers become even more pertinent.
1.2 The mandate of “establishing a high standard of morality in government business and ensuring that the actions and behavior of public officers conform to the highest standards of public morality and accountability”, raises the ethical threshold in government business. As the foremost Constitutional Institutional arrangement put in place, the Bureau intervenes in the anti-corruption effort of government at the levels of prevention, punishment and promotion of values. Putting the CCB mandate on a scale of priority, the weight points heavily on promotion of values as we shall come to see.
1.3 The establishment of a high standard of morality in government business is a big picture, a beautiful piece to behold, but it starts with the artist pencil sketching single foot prints, showing a route that leads to a destination.
1.4 The essence of a Code of Conduct for Public Officers is for the ethical standards delineated for public conduct to be enforced. The will and ability to enforce such standards lie in our ability as individual public officers to internalize the values of honesty, integrity, discipline, professionalism, justice, fairness, hard work, excellence in service, and responsible citizenship.
1.5 The way to do this is to put the public lens in our hearts, to search our actions, our decisions, our conduct, or behavior. This will keep us on track, focusing on public interest, giving account of our stewardship to the public who have entrusted us with the power or authority we are exercising.
1.6 In the words of Luther Hodges, former US Secretary of Commerce, “this matter of moral and ethical behavior in business or in government comes back finally to a personal situation”. Yes it is a personal choice. You choose to be ethical because the legal sanctions are not necessarily the motivation for ethical behaviour. This position is supported by Richard L. Kattel, a president of Citizens and South National Bank of Atlanta, when he said, that “all the laws in the world won’t prevent unethical conduct. It is a matter of personal integrity”.
Read Full Briefing »