Ethics in Public Administration

1. Ethics in Public Administration

2. Ethics in Public Administration Agenda • Introduction • Administrative responsibility, accountability and ethics are three major concepts in checking the power of a government • Three concepts are sometimes inter-related, and this will be focused on ethics in general

3. Ethics in Public Administration • Administrative responsibility can be traced back to the debate between Carl Friedrich and Herman Finer • Finer emphasized controls and sanctions over public servants by legislature, judiciary and administration • Friedrich relied on tendency of public servants to be self-motivating in response to public demands

4. Ethics in Public Administration • Finer defined administrative responsibility into two ways : (1) A is externally accountable for B to C; (2) responsibility may mean personal (internal) conscience and sense of moral obligation • Michael Harmon puts self-development and self-fulfillment as a basis for administrative responsibility

5. Ethics in Public Administration • He argues that officials are expected to actively initiate and promote policies • Frederic Mosher provides two categories of responsibility: objective and subjective • Objective responsibility (or accountability) : means responsibility of a person or an organization to someone else.

6. Ethics in Public Administration • Objective responsibility is similar to accountability or answerability • If a civil servant fails to carry out a directive, he or she is subjected to penalties • Subjective (or psychological) responsibility focuses on personal feeling and belief, and it emphasizes personal loyalty and conscience.

7. Ethics in Public Administration • Administrative accountability can best be defined as the obligation of public servants to answer responsibilities flowing from the authority • Internal accountability holds public servants answerable to superiors for their own actions. External accountability holds public servants answerable to the public

8. Ethics in Public Administration • Administrative ETHICS: can be defined as “the principles and standards of right conduct for public servants” (Kenneth Kernaghan and David Siegel from Brock University, Canada) • Principles and standards of ethical behavior include, for example, honesty and promise keeping

9. Ethics in Public Administration • Ethical values can be used to resolve conflicts, such as whether a public servant should obey the order of superiors in not reporting a public health crisis (SARS) that affect public interest (China’s local officials)

10. Ethics in Public Administration • Characteristics (or hallmarks) of ETHICS: • (1) Opportunities for public servants to be involved in unethical conduct come from the POWER they exercise in the development and administration of public policy • (2) Senior public servants with DISCRETION and CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION have greater opportunities to benefit from unethical conduct

11. Ethics in Public Administration • (3) TEMPTATIONS to have unethical conduct exist al ALL LEVELS of government • (4) The public’s interest in ethics of civil servants fluctuated (oscillated) from time to time, ranging from politicization (high level of interest) to being forgotten

12. Ethics in Public Administration • (5) Public and media concern focuses on (a) conflicts of interest, (b) political partisanship (or neutrality), (c) public comments / remarks, and (d) confidentiality • (6) Some questions relating to ethics have been raised, such as: (a) What kind of gifts or entertainment should public servants accept from someone?

13. Ethics in Public Administration (b) Under what situation is moonlighting acceptable? (c) Is apparent conflict of interest as serious as actual conflict? (d) To what extent should public servants participate in partisan and political activities?

14. Ethics in Public Administration (e) To what extent should public servants criticize government policies? (f) Under what circumstances are public servants justified in leaking out government information to the mass media or the public? Effective Government management of all these questions is crucial, like using code of conduct, drafting regulations, statutes and guidelines

15. Ethics in Public Administration • Analytical Framework is from Terry Cooper (Responsible Administrator) • (1) Cooper says the process of being ethical ultimately requires the INDIVIDUAL administrator to apply those values and make a decision • (2) Cooper emphasizes the need to improve control over individual decisions

16. Ethics in Public Administration • (3) He develops a process dimension that provides guidelines for administrators to observe various responsibilities • (4) Cooper emphasizes the need for individual administrators to stick to ORGANIZATIONAL responsibilities / roles

17. Ethics in Public Administration • I am going to analyze ethics in the context of Hong Kong by using the two dimensions outlined by Cooper: (1) INDIVIDUAL, and (2) ORGANIZATIONAL • Case studies will be used to demonstrate the features and dimensions of administrative ETHICS

18. Ethics in Public Administration • INDIVIDUAL DIMENSION • (1) The case of Wong Ho-sang : He was the former Commissioner of Inland Revenue who (a) did not declare his investment in an accountancy consultancy (J. Enterprise), and (b) had potential conflicts of interest in assessing the accounts of this consultancy owned by his wife

19. Ethics in Public Administration • In August 1999, the Civil Service Bureau stripped Wong Ho-sang of his position • Wong violated civil service ethics in several aspects: (a) He should “not invest or become involved in business venture of any personal and official dealings (CSB Conduct and Discipline)

20. Ethics in Public Administration (b) Wong “should not use information… obtained in his official capacity to benefit family or friends financially” (CSB investment guideline) (c) CSB conflict of interest guideline : Wong should “avoid using his position to benefit himself, his family, relatives or friends”

21. Thank You