Why Public Accountability, Audits, and Performance-Based Indicators Undermined the Ethic of Public - Essay Example

Running Header: Public Accountability Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Institution: Course Code: Date of Submission: Accountability in the public offices Introduction In many years in the public administration, the concern has been how to ensure that the public servants are adhering to the laid down rules and procedures when serving the general public. Setting public service standards for all civil servants is the major theme of public administration in the 21st century. According to Sakr Ashour (2004), a consensus worldwide has been developed to make sure that all governments recognize the importance of reforming the public sectors in order to enhance the public service ethics, integrity and transparency s well as accountability and professionalism in executing the government functions. This is particularly to make sure that delivery of services to the general public is not compromised by the actions of view individuals who out to serve personal interests. Reforming the public sectors and all the institutions that are involved is very critical in making sure that public resources which are scarce are economically spent for the national good (Scott 1990). It is through proper use of available resources that the government can enhance public sector performance and at the same time strengthen its responsibility promoting development of the key sectors of the economy through the provision of public services. While serving at the public administration it is the responsibility of each and every person to follow the work ethics which are entangled in accountability, transparency and integrity as well as professionalism. According to the research report by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA 2001), on ten African countries found out that good governance and good management of public resources is very critical in realizing sustainable development. Unethical and unjust practices in the public sector were found to be major cause of underdevelopment in several countries more especially in Africa. It is because of these grounds that there is need to have a system in place that could be used to check on the operations of the public offices has been stimulated. The primary agenda for putting these systems in place is to make sure transparency and accountability is enhanced in the public service. The objective of this essay is to critically asses how accountability, audits and performance-based indicators have affected the ethic of public service and professionalism and it these structures are necessary in maximizing efficiency and cost effectiveness. Ethics Ethics in the public offices require that every officer serving in the public offers does what is expected of them by the community. In other words one has to demonstrate high level of integrity by the right thing which is not meant to hurt the public in one way or the other. Ethics is a universally accepted concept not only in public offices but also in the private sector. Ethics has got a very long history (Wanna et l 1999). This is to mean that ethics has existed alongside mankind. It explains how individuals’ behaviors demonstrate high level of morals and character in their behaviors. Ethics in detail deals extensively deals with issues such as good, bad, right and wrong. These are the characteristics that must be demonstrated in every individual. According to Hanekom (1984), ethics in public offices is used to evaluate and determine whether one’s conduct exhibit positive and negative values. This view is shared by Chapman (1993) who states that ethics is a set of principles that are used to determine the right actions and the rules that govern one’s conduct. The criteria for determining what is right can be put down in writing, legislation, circulars and standing orders or even through a mere interpretation by a person, organization or institution of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. This is what has been transcended into the public sector of many of the world countries as a strategy of ascertain the conducts of public officers and how they apply their mandate to execute their duties. In the public sector, the Charter for the Public Service is used to refer to the standards that have been set to provide a guideline on how individuals should behave and act while discharging government functions (Goldberg & Cole 2002). The charter describes ethics as sound practice which is founded on good moral values and principles. The moral values and principles in the private sector include: efficiency, high level of professional discipline, integrity, fairness, justice and equity while discharging government functions. In this regard therefore, public service ethics refer to a wide range of practices that all public servants either working as state agents or members of a particular profession like accounting, procurement, law, health, education, and human resource should observe while discharging their official functions. Accountability Accountability as used in the public service is perceived to be a good practice. Accountability is described as a situation where those individuals who are in power and who represent the government discharge their duties in a proper way. In other words, in discharging services to the public, one is expected to observe the rules that govern his functions and not misuse them in any way. According to Meyer (1995), accountability is the responsibility of the government and its institutions to work towards achieving the earlier stated objectives and at the same be ready to account for them publicly. It’s the general commitment from both the government and its agents to be responsible for their actions both individually and collectively. This means that public accountability lies with each government function. In general public accountability demands that the performance of all functions provide results that are satisfactorily based on the powers and authority vested on them. This is because they are expected to act for the interested of the tax payers who have given them the moral authority to manage the state resources on their behalf. According to (Sarji, 1995), accountability cannot be achieved without taking into account the legal and ethical obligations. In other words, accountability is built on the ability to observe the legal and ethical obligations of a government function. It’s from this ground that accountability in the public sector cannot be talked of without making reference to the bureaucratic responsibility. Talking about internal accountability will mean that apart from being accountable to the general public, individuals are also accountable to their supervisors in the organizational level (Caldwell & Hayward 1997). In general terms therefore, accountability is a virtue since it is guided by the ethics, principles and rules that regulate the moral value of the workers behavior and therefore enhancing ethics is critical in promoting accountability and vice-versa. The introduction of accountability to the public service is expected to do more good than destruction. This is because it reminds the public servants that have somebody who they are answerable to. Accountability as used in public service is aimed at establishing there are moral values exhibited by individuals who serve the public. Corruption, unfair treatment, misuse of the public resources etc are some of the vices that can be well fought through accountability (Davis et l 1989). It is through accountability of individual actions that public servants may be charged on their actions. As a matter of fact, the introduction of accountability and demanding people to be responsible for their actions does not undermine in any the public service ethics in way. Instead accountability is used as a supplementary to determining whether there are ethics followed by public officers and to what extent. In addition, accountability of public officers in their works encourages community participation in determining how national resources are being used for the public good (Caldwell & Hayward 1997). Accountability empowers the public to speak of what they think is not right for the public. For example it is the responsibility of the people to bring the local government into accountability by watching on how it spends its resources to offer important social services such as healthcare, education and infrastructure through construction of good roads and communication networks. It is through accountability that the members of the public can launch complaints that they have against the public officers who misappropriate the public resources. This is after research had revealed that healthcare facilities and learning institutions are the worst hit as a result of lack of moral values. In essence, ethics may exist but practicing them is a challenge and therefore is the work of accountability to ensure that public office ethics are respected and followed. Auditing of public service and professionalism In the public service and professionalism, there are several practices and behaviors of public officers that undermine ethics, accountability and transparency. Auditing of the public service seeks to establish some of the vices that are very common and that taint the public service image. Some of the vices that can be identified through public auditing include: corruption, conflicts of interest and human resource management malpractices (Wanna et al 1999). Corruption Corruption is considered as one of the major problems that put into risk the fortunes and economic development of many countries. Practices such as bribery, vested interests and entry into illegal dealings, translate into large costs for the economy and the general public. This is because national resources are not put into where they are supposed for community for community development. These practices have continued to erode the confidence the people have on public institutions. In broader terms, corruption may be described as an abuse to the powers that have been bestowed on someone for self interest (Caldwell & Hayward 1997). However, for an act to be declared as corruption it must meet a certain criteria. First, if the people involved in a transaction do so with bias and ways that are not consisted with fair treatment. Second, if the bias that revealed was as a result of an intentional. Third, if there is an advantage accrued to the parties involved in the transaction. The benefit may be of monetary, gift or favoritism. Corruption is considered one the major unethical practices that lead to decline in public trust on public servants. This is because the cost of corruption is directly absorbed by the society and more so the tax payer. The problems associated with corruption include: resource misallocation, lower investment, reduced efficiency, unresponsive policies and exacerbated poverty. Conflict of interest The problem of conflict of interest arises when personal needs of the public servant compete with those of the public. This means that personal interests may cause a public servant to be biased in discharging his duties to the public. Williams (1995), argues that conflict of interest can be material and may influence the way in which one discharges his duties to the public. The concerns about conflicts of interests arise since they tend to reduce the public trust and confidence of the public servants. With this respect therefore it is very clear that conflict of interests among the public officers can be very obstructing for service delivery to the community. Conflict of interests can lea to divided loyalty and to some extent it can lead to corruption. The following are some of the examples where conflicts of interests may arise: first, when the public servant, gives some information to the bidder of a tender for financial gains in the future. Second, offering secret support to the government competitor. Third, engaging in negotiations with a company where a close friend relative holds shares. Human resource management (HRM) malpractices Use of wrong human resource (HR) practices, policies and procedures, can greatly result into malpractices within the HRM that can pose a very great threat to professionalism, ethics and transparency. The following are some of the factors that may lead to HRM system inefficiency: failing to enact basic ethical principles in the human resource strategy and procedures that subject the human resource function into several malpractices. It is from these grounds of corruption, conflict of interests and HRM malpractices that auditing of public policies and procedures need to be enacted to help bring about proper governance of public resources. Auditing of government offices is a boost to the ethics standards and principles. It creates room for compliance by the government with public office code of conduct (Wanna et l 1999). Auditing is also used as a tool for ascertaining whether rules are observed by all public servants when serving the general public. The public offices require that the holders behave responsibly with taking the due advantage of the powers that have been given to meet their personal benefits. In other words, auditing is used by the respective agencies to find out what are the major obstacles that exist for the public servants to discharge their duties effectively and the required course of action. Public performance indicators Performance monitoring is very critical in public offices. This is because it is part of the good management program. For the United States government uses the performance indicators to evaluate to what level the government funded projects in fulfilling the government objectives. It is from this ground that performance information is considered very vital in determining whether government agencies are real worthy investing in. the performance indicators provides a list of parameters that are used to gauge the performance of the public office holders. Indicators for government offices First and foremost, corruption is considered as one of the commonly committed crimes in the public offices. The best indicator to the measure this is to look at the number of projects that are completed within the projects that allocated for them. More often than not, it’s not easy to have the projects completed if funds are embezzled. Another parameter that can be used to measure the level of tolerance or fight against corruption is the frequency of the complaints that are labeled by the community against a particular government agency. Complaints or complements on the quality of services delivered are a clear measure for the existence of corruption in a government agency as illustrated by Brown & Jackson (1990). The people, who do business with the government, also can be provided very substantial information on how various government agencies are effective in their operations. The companies that do business with government are always very cautious on their dealings and therefore they are forced to carry out their own investigations to determine the suitability of the business with the government. It’s through the information that they collect that it can be determined whether government agencies are trustworthy and effective in their operations as argued by Hughes (1998). The time and real cost incurred by an individual to get a service or license from the government agency, also can be used as indicator to determine the level of performance by the government agency. The time taken to access or get connected to important utilities such as power and water can be used as a criterion for measuring the performance of the public offices (UNDESA 2000). Maximizing efficiency and cost effectiveness Public office ethics demand that the public office occupants demonstrate high level of morality while discharging their duties to the public. The tools that have been discussed are use to determine whether there are ethics in public offices. As a matter of fact, these tools are very important in enhancing transparency and accountability in public offices. This is because they subject every individual, government agency and function into scrutiny on their actions (Bradley & Parker 2006. These instill some fear among the workers and therefore try to be professional in their duties and consequently increased efficiency in public offices. Conclusion It is very discouraging to find out that scandals in public offices are some of the underlying issues that have led to underdevelopment among different countries. This is because government resources are misappropriated for personal interests. Enduring corruption, lack of ethics, transparency and accountability as well as unprofessional behaviors, are some of the issues that have caused a lot of concern by the public. Use of various tools such as accountability, audits and performance indicators could help various governments and agencies to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of public officers. Finally, corruption, human resource management malpractices and personal interests are some of the major causes of abuse of government offices by individuals. However, application of different performance indicators could be used to evaluate how various government agencies are performing and probably design next cause of action. References Brown, C.V., & Jackson, P.M. (1990). Public Sector economics (4th ed.). Oxford: Blackwell. (Dixson 336.41 B877). (pp. 210–215). Bradley, L., & Parker, R. (2006). Do Australian public sector employees have the type of culture they want in the era of new public management? Australian Journal of Public Administration, 65(1), pp. 89-99. Caldwell, B. & Hayward, D. (1997). The future of our schools. London: Falmer Press. Davis, G., Weller, P. & Lewis, C. (1989). Corporate management: Background and dilemmas, Corporate Management in Australian Government. Sydney: Macmillan. Goldberg, J.S. & Cole, B.R. (2002). Quality management in education: Building excellence and equity in student performance. The Quality Management Journal, 9(4), p. 8–22. Hughes, O. (1998). Public management and administration: An introduction (Chapters 2 and 3). Melbourne: Macmillan. Kuye J. O. and Mafunisa M.J (2003) Responsibility, Accountability and Ethics: The Case For Public Service Leadership. Journal of Public Administration Vol 38, No. 4 pp 421 - 437. Scott, B. (1990). School-centred education: Report of the management of NSW education portfolio (Part 7). Sydney: Government Printer. UNDESA. (2000). Professionalism and Ethics in the Public Service: Issues and practices in selected regions. New York: Springer. Weller, P. (1991). Financial management reforms in government. Canberra Bulletin of Public Administration, 67 (November), p. 9–17. Wanna, J., O'Faircheallough, C. & Weller, P. (1999). Devolution, discretion and delivery. Public Sector Management in Australia, (2nd ed.). Sydney: Macmillan. Read More