JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, July 26, 2025

Code of Conduct sets ethical guide for public officials

by

20120728

Part IV of the In­tegri­ty in Pub­lic Life Act con­tains a Code of Con­duct which func­tions as a mech­a­nism to help reg­u­late the be­hav­iour of all Per­sons in Pub­lic Life and per­sons ex­er­cis­ing pub­lic func­tions. The Code of Con­duct pro­motes pre­dictabil­i­ty and eth­i­cal stan­dards in the per­for­mance of du­ty for all those charged with car­ry­ing out pub­lic func­tions. Thus, pub­lic of­fi­cials are re­quired to treat all per­sons even-hand­ed­ly, not just the mem­bers of a par­tic­u­lar group.

The crit­i­cal out­come of this be­hav­iour is that any mem­ber of the pub­lic, who ac­cess­es a gov­ern­ment ser­vice, must re­ceive the same treat­ment re­gard­less of his/her race, colour, class, age, sex, per­ceived so­cial stand­ing or po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion. The Code of Con­duct es­tab­lish­es known guide­lines and bound­aries to as­sist pub­lic of­fi­cials in ad­min­is­ter­ing the pub­lic re­sources fair­ly and with trans­paren­cy.

Be­low are some prin­ci­ples of in­tegri­ty, as de­rived from the Code of Con­duct which out­line im­por­tant rules of be­hav­iour to guide de­ci­sion-mak­ing in the pub­lic sphere in or­der to stan­dard­ise the ser­vice de­liv­ered to and re­ceived by all cit­i­zens. Pub­lic Of­fi­cials must:-

Per­form their func­tions and ad­min­is­ter pub­lic re­sources in an ef­fec­tive and ef­fi­cient man­ner. Be fair and im­par­tial in ex­er­cis­ing their pub­lic du­ty. Af­ford no un­due pref­er­en­tial treat­ment to any group or in­di­vid­ual. Arrange their pri­vate in­ter­ests in such a man­ner so as to main­tain pub­lic con­fi­dence and trust in their in­tegri­ty. Not use their of­fice for the im­prop­er ad­vance­ment of their own or their fam­i­ly's per­son­al or fi­nan­cial in­ter­est or the in­ter­est of any per­son.

Not en­gage in any trans­ac­tion that is in­com­pat­i­ble with their of­fice, func­tion and du­ty. Not use pub­lic prop­er­ty or ser­vices for ac­tiv­i­ties not re­lat­ed to their of­fi­cial work. Not, ei­ther di­rect­ly or in­di­rect­ly, use their of­fice for pri­vate gain. Not use pub­lic funds in dis­re­gard of the Fi­nan­cial Or­ders or oth­er reg­u­la­tions ap­plic­a­ble to such funds. Not ac­cept a fee, gift or per­son­al ben­e­fit that is con­nect­ed di­rect­ly or in­di­rect­ly with the per­for­mance of their du­ties.

Not use in­for­ma­tion gained in the ex­e­cu­tion of their of­fice and which is not avail­able to the gen­er­al pub­lic to fur­ther pri­vate in­ter­ests (in­sid­er in­for­ma­tion). Not use their of­fice to in­flu­ence a de­ci­sion made by an­oth­er per­son or pub­lic body to fur­ther pri­vate in­ter­ests (in­flu­ence). Keep all mat­ters of a con­fi­den­tial na­ture, con­fi­den­tial even af­ter sep­a­ra­tion from the ser­vice (con­fi­den­tial­i­ty).

Dis­close their in­ter­est and dis­qual­i­fy them­selves from any de­ci­sion-mak­ing process where there is a pos­si­ble or per­ceived con­flict of in­ter­est (con­flict of in­ter­est). The prin­ci­ples out­lined as well as the sanc­tions for fail­ure to ad­here to them will be fur­ther ex­plored in the fu­ture.

It must be re­mem­bered, how­ev­er, that Pub­lic Of­fi­cials must treat with a di­verse ar­ray of sit­u­a­tions while per­form­ing their of­fi­cial du­ties. Of­ten, even with the guid­ance of a writ­ten Code of Con­duct, do­ing the right thing is not clear and straight­for­ward.

The Act af­fords Per­sons in Pub­lic Life and per­sons ex­er­cis­ing pub­lic func­tions the op­por­tu­ni­ty to seek the opin­ion and rec­om­men­da­tions of the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion on any mat­ter re­spect­ing their own oblig­a­tions un­der Sec­tion 36 of the Act. There­fore, when con­front­ed with thorny or dif­fi­cult is­sues, be­fore act­ing, per­sons may seek the opin­ion and rec­om­men­da­tions of the Com­mis­sion who will give an ad­vice that is priv­i­leged in­for­ma­tion and may be re­leased on­ly with the con­sent of the per­son mak­ing the ap­pli­ca­tion.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored