State of integrity management in central government 2009

Most of the ministries (nine of the 13) had made progress introducing integrity management systems in the past few years but staff familiarity with integrity rules still leaves something to be desired. In practice, integrity measures do not always have a lasting impact on staff awareness and conduct; attention must still be paid to this. The exemplary function of managers is essential for integrity. A minority of the staff considered in our investigation thought the exemplary role and ethical conduct of managers were positive. Managers, by contrast, were more positive about the integrity policy in their organisations and the achievements of integrity policy. Our investigation found that the use of risk analyses is a relatively weak element in the government integrity management system. Risk analyses can tailor the integrity management system to fir the organisation.

Soft controls are very important. They consist of management measures to promote a culture of integrity within an organisation. These measures include dilemma training courses, seminars and exemplary conduct by managers. There has been an improvement in the recording of notifications and violations since 2004. There are still gaps, however, in the records of some ministries, partly because of problems implementing the government-wide system to record violations of integrity. The uniformity of the records also leaves something to be desired.

There is a risk that promoting and maintaining a relatively high level of integrity management will come under pressure in the years ahead as a result of the allocation of tasks and reconsiderations. To ensure that the achievements are not lost, the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) as coordinating minister should continue to act as a driver of integrity management.

We recommend that the four ministries that have made little or no progress in the past few years make up the lost ground in the years ahead and strengthen integrity awareness among staff by means of soft controls. Effective communication of the use of soft controls will increase the effectiveness of hard controls. Active forms of communication such as seminars and training courses are to be preferred. The reliability and quality of records of notifications and violations must be improved. Uniform records and aggregations are necessary to gain an insight into the notifications and violations at each ministry and in the civil service as a whole. We recommend that all ministries use the uniform registration model introduced at the end of 2008.

We recommend that the Minister of BZK continue its coordinating and driving role in the field of integrity management. This is necessary to ensure that the efforts taken to record integrity violations and the whistle blower's scheme bear fruit.

The minister agrees in general with our description of the current status of integrity management in government. She acknowledges that improvements can still be made. The minister takes the recommendations in the report to heart. She understands our fear that the integrity management system will come under pressure from the allocation of tasks and reconsiderations. She intends to continue to promote the integrity of the public sector and specifically of central government.