Topic Guide: Public Sector Integrity

Public sector ethics is an expansive term, covering both elected and unelected public officials as well as civil servants from the highest circles of state power to the lowliest administrators. The corruption challenges these groups face can vary enormously. While junior unelected public officials are more prone to solicit petty bribes during interactions with the public, senior civil servants and elected ministers are more likely to engage in so-called "grand corruption" scams, in which the abuse of public resources and ultimately state capture are real risks.  

Moreover, issues around public sector ethics are not limited to time spent as a public employee: it is increasingly recognised that more needs to be done to prevent both the undue influence over political decision making and the unfair commercial advantage caused by the so-called revolving door. Given the range of public sector duties, it is hardly surprising that the nature of related corruption challenges runs the gamut from petty bribe taking to wholesale state capture.  

Measures to promote integrity in the public sector are heavily contingent on a country's legal and institutional set-up and are dependent on the nature of the corruption challenge itself. Generally, a combination of robust punitive measures with a "regulatory regime of rules, guidance and enforcement" is an effective means of curbing unethical practices in public office.[1] Regulation addressing corruption challenges in the public sector frequently covers the following core integrity mechanisms:  

• ethics codes
• conflict of interest policies
• assets declaration regimes 

Broader good governance approaches for the public sector often include public financial management reform,[2] freedom of information legislation, whistleblowing arrangements and human resource management procedures (recruit, promotion, dismissal). As these measures are not themselves specific anti-corruption tools, they are only mentioned in passing here.    

Instead, this topic guide focuses on three main avenues by which governments, civil society and international organisations have tried to improve probity among public servants: (1) the promotion of ethical codes of conduct, (2) the mitigation of conflicts of interest and (3) the requirement for certain public sector workers to declare their incomes and assets. Generally, these approaches seek to mobilise the tools of accountability and transparency to deter, detect and, when combined with appropriate punitive measures, sanction inappropriate behaviour in public office. Taken together, these measures can form part of an effective wider anti-corruption strategy able to reduce impropriety in public office.