“A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world” Albert Camus
Ethics is about the guiding values, principles and standards that help people determine how ‘things ought to be done’. It refers to the judgements that people make and the process of arriving at those judgements. It is the process by which people make value-based decisions. Upholding the principles and standards of right conduct by public office holders at all levels of government is an important aspect of public service ethics.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), corporate governance is one key element in improving economic efficiency and growth as well as enhancing investor confidence. Corporate governance involves a set of relationships between a company’s management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders. Corporate governance also provides the structure through which the objectives of the company are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance are determined. Good corporate governance provides proper incentives for the board and management to pursue objectives that are in the interests of the company and its shareholders and facilitates effective monitoring. The presence of an effective corporate governance system, within an individual company and across an economy as a whole, helps to provide a degree of confidence that is necessary for the proper functioning of a market economy.
Kenya is not short in legislation on ethics and governance. The recently promulgated constitution has a whole chapter dedicated to leadership and integrity. Section 79 of the constitution also provides for the enactment of legislation to establish an independent Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission. There is also the Public Officers Ethics Act 2003, the Public Procurement and Disposal Act 2005 and so many more laws that govern the conduct and behaviour of public officials. So why is it that the rot in our public institution does not seem to go away?
One of the principles for ethical management is to hire the right people. It is easier to have ethical behavior in an organization if the right people with principles are hired. The public sector lacks ethical behavior primarily because of this. The level of nepotism is so high that large percentages of employees in many public institutions come from the area of the top officer in the organization. Board members of these organizations are also culpable. Rather than concentrate on discharging their duties in the entities in which they sit on their boards, they concentrate in ensuring that they fill the organization with their relatives, their friends and the relatives of their friends. People are not hired on the basis of their qualifications but rather on the basis of whom one knows in the organization or how much money one has to “buy” the job.
Another principle is to set standards more than rules. A code of conduct cannot deter those that are inclined to be unethical. Instead of spending a great deal of time on extensive regulations, mangers should concentrate on clarifying standards. CEOs and managers should let people know what level of performance is expected, and explain that ethical behavior is a must. This hardly happens in our institutions. This is so because managers are busy looking at ways to enrich themselves by embezzling the funds or through unscrupulous deals. People who are tasked to safeguard the finance of the taxpayers are busy colluding with rogue contractors and criminals on how to defraud the exchequer.
The third principle is not to get isolated. Managers can become isolated not only from markets and competitors but from what is going on in their own operations. Nevertheless, managers are still responsible for what goes on, whether they know about it or not. Failure to get involve d in the day-to-day activities of the organization has seen many departmental heads, CEOs, Permanent Secretaries and even Ministers get caught unaware by the corrupt and shady dealings of their juniors.
The final and most important principle is for managers to make sure that their ethical example is absolutely impeccable at all times. They must operate ethically in dealing with various stakeholders. Subordinates are likely to pay more attention to what a manager does than what he says.
In a study on Challenges in implementing code of conduct within the public sector in Anglophone West African countries, Sakyi and Bawole identified the following as some of the hindrances to poor implementation of the codes of conduct. General weakness in leadership, the syndrome of leniency, lack of knowledge, ignorance about the code, weak enforcement, outdated or old codes, difficulty of comprehending and applying the language of codes, too idealistic codes that do not address daily moral issues confronting civil servants, ineffective reward systems, poor public service organizational culture, weak supervision and monitoring and undue societal pressure on bureaucrats.
If we wish to have a turn-around on how our institutions are run we must all be watchful, demand for transparency and accountability from our leadership, elect leaders who are committed to the progress of the nation, and above all have a change of mindset by focusing on the overall good of the nation rather than on individual or communal gain. If we do this and public officials follow the principles on ethical management outlined above, the nation as a whole will be headed to the right direction on matters of governance and ethics in public institutions.
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