Theme 2008: Integrity Management

About the Working Group

The announced 2008 Working Group on Integrity in Public Governance is the continuation of the WG last year in Kiev on Integrity in Public Governance in Ljubljana, of the WG on Ethics in Governance, which was held at the 13^th NISPAcee Annual Conference in Moscow, Russia 2005, and the WG on Preventing Corruption in Public Administration at the 12^th NISPAcee Annual Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, in May 2004.

Background and justification

Administrative malpractice, such as corruption, abuse of power, nepotism and favoritism, are widespread in the public sector, including in CEE countries. At the same time, corruption and ethics have become important issues in the practice and theory of politics, public administration, law, economics and society. This has led to more awareness and knowledge to different target groups within and outside the public service. Practical solutions for ethical dilemmas and successful professional solutions in administrative decision-making can be formulated.

Although rules and regulations are required to address such malpractice, ethical and professional organizational approaches are also required. Bottom-up initiatives must complement top-down activities. In addition, people from outside the public service, especially the public media, have an important role to play in improving integrity. In addition, specialized staffs in anti-corruption offices pay special attention to upright professional public services.

The Working Group on Integrity Management brings together academics and practitioners interested in the ethical dimension and professional work of administrative decision-making.

The group's mission is to establish a long-term network aimed at stimulating research and assistance to practical problems on public service charters in CEE countries. The focus is to measure the results and the impact of different activities and to analyze the implementation of instruments. Also, the documentation of the results in handbooks and other publications is an objective of the group. This includes questions concerning principles and standards of discretionary power, neutrality and legality, and transparency and administrative responsiveness to the regime in office. It also includes questions of organizational optimization and personnel development. The Working Group on Integrity in Public Governance has an opportunity to exercise leadership in the development and implementation of new directions in administrative integrity and professionalism. Our Working group gives answers to practitioners on how to optimize their organizations and how to train and influence their personnel to obtain the best results and impacts in integrity management. We also use good practice on the question of how to train different target groups in Integrity management.

Call for papers

After having so many fruitful discussions and excellent papers and presentations in the past, we decided this time to focus on drafting a joint book or handbook on “Training on Integrity Management”. The participants will therefore act as an author/team guided and facilitated by the WG coordinators. The membership of the Working Group seeks to build connections between reflective practitioners and engaged scholars in the Ethics/Integrity field, as a matter of priority. The primary objective of the Group is to enrich the 2008 Conference program with a handbook to be drafted which will include practice papers which focus on training, instruments and the results of implementation and impact.

Presentations focused on any new aspect in the field of Ethics/Integrity in Public Governance are also welcome. Cross-disciplinary studies are to be encouraged.

We are inviting all member institutions, associate and individual members, as well as others interested in the topic of integrity in public governance in Central and Eastern Europe to participate and discuss:

1. Target groups: Target groups in Integrity Management, anti-corruption strategies and ethics. What target groups inside the public service and outside the public service have to be addressed in training and consulting to improve integrity management?

2. Training needs: What are the training or consulting needs for the selected target groups (see 1.)

o Staff of specialized institutions: Which institutions succeed in curbing corruption and other integrity violations? What are the results of task forces? What is the impact of special Integrity units in public administration and within an organization? In what way are the staff members qualified?

o Leadership: What are the challenges of modern leadership in integrity management? What does the profile of a leader look like? What kind of leadership developments are in place? What does a qualification in Integrity Management look like?

o Other

3. Training:
Which training activities for students, for professionals in the public service and for politicians and the other target groups exist? What do the training programs look like? What is the evaluation and impact of the training approaches?

o Content of Training programs:
Instruments: What instruments to protect integrity in governance are working, in what context and in what culture? What does not work and why? : Promoting transparency and accountability; conflicts of interests and incompatible policies; recusal; whistle-blowing; codes of conduct. HRM practices – training; job rotation and organization development etc. Which guidelines for organizations to improve integrity exist in practice and with what result? What recommendations can be formulated for the development of integrity guidelines in an organization? How can guidelines be implemented successfully? Which laws and regulations are in place to combat corruption and what training is in place?

o Methods on Training “Integrity Management”

o Training and learning aids (case studies, CD-ROM, slides, scripts, …)

o other

4. Results and impact: What are the results and the impact of training, consulting and public awareness programs?

The above mentioned fields of research and practice in Integrity lead us to the following actions which are the focus of the Working Group:

• Which target groups play a key role?
• What training and consulting needs do the mentioned target groups have? Who needs specialized knowledge in combating corruption?
• What knowledge needs do the public have?
• What do training programs for the different target groups look like?
• How are the trainers qualified?
• What is the content of the training i.e. conflicts of interest and incompatibility; integrity at the public sector/private sector interface (Public Procurement); whistle-blowing and promoting accountability; corruption in the Public Sector; building an effective “National Integrity System”; promoting integrity in public administration through HRM practices; organizational aspects of fighting corruption; laws for combating corruption and reaching EU and OECD standards in fighting corruption.
• Which training methods are successful?
• Which training aids and learning activities should be provided?

• Further recommendations for training and training policy on Integrity Management.
• Scrutiny of Governance by Media and Civil Society.

The working group will collect different existing research papers, practical reports, documentation and examples and presentations in the field of integrity. The Working Group members will, this time, function as an author/team, group the papers and to provide a handbook on “Training on Integrity Management”.

In our working group, at least one session will be without presentations. We would like to discuss different approaches and decide on a way forward and possible (funded) projects in the field of integrity management.

For the continuous exchange of data and experience between all members, an e-platform will be designed and will be in use from September 2007 onwards.