Akwa Ibom News Online Commentary

Local government is institutionalised, invoking an organisational culture that is at times not conducive to rational decision-making. The local government system is motivated by self-interest and renowned for it’s insensitivity to the role of ethics in the decision making process. Local government is confronted with unethical behaviour, stakeholders become concerned and in the maintenance of public interest ask, is that decision right or is that decision fair. Councillors and senior staff seemingly have very little appreciation of the principles of ethical decision-making. This article will advocate that to improve professionalism in local government both Councillors and senior staff must undergo a comprehensive training course in ethics.

Ethics is a body of principles or standards of human conduct that govern the behaviour of individuals and groups. Ethics arise not simply from man's creation but from human nature itself making it a natural body of laws from which man's laws follow.

The public trust has been violated by unethical conduct of individuals holding positions of trust, which gives rise to the suggestion that the leadership of local government is ineffective. Local government has failed to shape its organisational culture into accepting its ethical responsibilities. On this note several local governments have floundered, failing to meet their responsibilities, which have prompted the State Government to punish a number of Council’s chairmen or Heads of council for reasons ranging from the inability to govern effectively or unethical behaviour.

Not all Councils act in an unethical manner. In fairness to the third sphere of government there are those Councils, which maintain ethical practices. It is not the intention of this article to place all Councils in the same category, as that would be most inappropriate. The objective of the article is to highlight the problem, which exists concerning unethical behaviour and the impact such behaviour can have if not appropriately controlled.

This article will not become entrenched in discussing the specific details of the punishments because it is beyond the scope of the tenets being discussed. Rather the article will take a broad-brush approach to the question of unethical behaviour in local government. In doing this it will be emphasised that local government must let go of its addiction to self-interest in its decision making process and become better educated, and become more responsive to the need that its decision making process be ethically based. High ethical standards are critical to a local government’s credibility. Yet most local government employees and Councillors have never taken a course in ethics. The establishment of an ethical work environment is important for local government to succeed.

The hostility vented towards Heads of council or chairmen of Local government is centred primarily on the inability of the council to act in a rational manner. Decisions are made that defy morality. Morality is ethics. Both ethics and morality are concerned with the facets of human behaviour, right or wrong and good or bad. Morality and ethics are distinctly separate because morals are the principles of rightness and wrongness that is derive from life experience. Ethics seek to determine the principles that justify behaviour as good or bad. Unethical behaviour is not concerned with boundaries, and the position advanced here is that ethics and morality are inseparatable.

In establishing that morality and ethics are one and the same, unethical behaviour in local government has given rise to a heightened level of public concern. Admittedly, the incidents of reported unethical behaviour have not reached plague proportions; nevertheless, such activity has interfered with the due process of Local government. Inquiries have been conducted into a number of Councils and Commissioners have been appointed to oversee the affairs of the Council until a new one is elected. This point reinforces the statement that local government is insensitive to the role of ethics in the decision making process. Councillors and senior staff first need to see it modelled and explained before they attempt to practice it themselves. Councillors and senior staff must learn new skills, rather than resting on their achievements to restore confidence in the local government system.

The confidence that ethics rules are supposed to give citizens is not just some general good feeling about local government; it is not just to make citizens sleep better. It is supposed to give some reason to believe that officials are making decisions based on the merits. If citizens have this assurance, they are less likely to raise questions about the motives of officials, and are themselves more likely to concentrate on the merits of decisions and on the substantive qualifications of the officials who are making the decisions.

Also the effort would not be wasted if the National Union of Local Government Employees became more active in briefing its members on the issue of ethics. The topic of ethics in local government has not gone unnoticed in our society, as there have been considerable talks on the topic.

Ethics, though not consciously created, is a product of social life, which has a function of promoting values common to the members of society.

The definition provided above is more than adequate to furnish an illustration of what is ethical. Ethics cannot be described as being enigmatic because ethics are part of life. However, considering ethics within an administrative context – which is the purpose of this article. Public administration ethics is a complex endeavour. To understand its uniqueness, you must understand that it involves responsibility, professionalism, integrity, accountability, benevolence, honesty, fair and equal treatment, fidelity, democratic responsibility, trust and competence.

From the information provided, ethics can be described as a moral attribute concerning the behaviour of individuals – which has an interrelationship with values that are embedded in choices. It follows then that decisions are made based upon choices and the decisions become contestable, debateable and requiring public justification. Therefore, within the decision making process it is important that the standard of the decision that you would expect for yourself should also be the standard of the decision afforded to others. Unfortunately this is not always the case as experience has shown. Following on from this point it is clear that the universality of ethical judgements requires us to go beyond thinking only about our own interests, and leads us to take a point of view from which we must give equal consideration to the interests of all affected by our actions.

The basic principles mentioned above have been disregarded on more than one occasion to achieve a personal benefit or to penalise a stakeholder for the benefit of another. It must be acknowledged that there are inconsistencies within the local government system that need to be resolved, thereby eliminating the indifference that exists and which consequently stifles the equitable representation of stakeholders interests. Therefore, rather than treating the system as if it is a Rubik’s cube to be twisted this way or that to satisfy a particular whim or sectional interests both elected members and senior staff; must not overlook the fact that they hold positions of trust and those positions must not be violated. And it is important that they have ethical considerations over and above what they have as regular members of society. The principles that have been outlined are vital to the maintenance of an ethical decision process in local government.

However, a number of inquires have been held into the activities of various Councils over some years now, and the Inquiry reports have disclosed behaviour contrary to ethical standards in order to secure a privileged position for those concerned. Due to the erosion of ethical standards within local government the public is demanding that the ethical conduct of its elected members and senior staff be beyond approach. Therefore, the leadership challenge for local government is to explore the frontiers of ethics training in order to stimulate ethical understanding, moral reasoning, ethical decision-making, and ultimately ethical action.

Developing an organisational culture around ethical decision making considerations is necessary because local governments are abstract, legal authorities and a set of relationships, with no moral obligations of their own. It is only the individuals in the organization who can have a sense of moral obligation; therefore, ethical responsibility is imposed on employees and Councillors.

Ethics is a question of individual behaviour and there is no relationship with the organisation as it is a separate and distinct entity. On that note, local government within the context of this discussion consists of Councillors and senior staff who have seemingly no sense of responsibility with respect to establishing ethical decision-making processes. The unwillingness to establish and maintain an ethical environment only perpetuates the argument that professional standards within local government are lacking. Elected members should have the educational training appropriate to deal with the complex affairs of local government, and senior staff should have higher qualifications. Therefore, given the ineptness of Councillors and senior staff in their appreciation of modern management practices, training is required in the principles of modern management and most importantly they must undertake a training course in ethics. Decisions are made, which at times negate the purpose and intent of the local government Act and as such have considerable impact upon stakeholders. The decision making process has arguably become entangled in “self-interest”. The issue of self-interest cannot be directed solely at Councillors because senior staff has also been active in this area.

To maintain and enhance public confidence, it must be ensured that actions and decisions are not influenced by the personal interests and preferences of those involved in the decision making process. The decision makers must realise that they are elected to office to serve the people and not their own interests, and this requirement applies equally to appointed personnel within the Local Government Council.

Managerially was the theme for the Local Government Act; however, it provides greater scope for unethical behaviour to occur. The Act is not decisive – it makes assumptions. It was assumed by having Councils adopt a Code of Conduct and reviewing it annually that the issue of unethical behaviour would be resolved.

The problem with Codes of Conduct is that it is easy to sick them on the wall, but hard to make them stick in practice. It doesn’t seem to matter whether a code has been developed to satisfy a legal requirement or because a Executive chairman or Head of Council has sought to satisfy a noble sentiment that a Code of Conduct will lead the Local Government Council into more ethical behaviour, or whether the code has been designed to provide a set of sanctions for poor behaviour. Without an effective development and implementation strategy which is integrated and engages with the core issues of concern to the council, the net result seems consistently the same: the Code of Conduct remains a mere piece of paper, displayed or appealed to when convenient, but ignored the rest of the time.

The State Government must accept its responsibility and implement measures to make the Code of Conduct enforceable. The provision of natural justice and procedural fairness now cost in time and money. The rigorous advocacy and ultimately enforcement of such codes will go a long way towards starting to turn the situation around.

Doubts are expressed as to the impartiality of the decisions made by local government, and questions are asked about the decision making process in the maintenance of public interest. So whenever one can ask questions such as “Would it be right to do that?” or “Is that fair?” we know that we are entering a field with ethical connotations. If these principles are distorted in order to achieve a particular outcome it can be argued that unethical behaviour has a pivotal role in the decision making process. The dilemma confronting local government concerning the issue of unethical behaviour will only be resolved by the Code of Conduct being enforceable and through the introduction of a comprehensive training course in ethics for both elected members and senior staff. It would also be beneficial to extend the ethics training to all employees in a local government. In this regard ethics training can both create a positive work climate and help employees and Councillors to become sensitive to the ethical requirements of their jobs. By not implementing an ethics training program local government will continually face challenges regarding its credibility.

There are a multitude of reports available within the public arena – reports that have emanated from inquiries into the conduct of various local governments. The reports published contain details of unethical behaviour. In holding positions of trust their approach to ethics must be unquestionable because they have a duty to ensure that their standards of ethics are over and above what they have as regular members of society.

The issue of unethical behaviour is a well-defined problem but the State Government has not taken any action to resolve the problem. The State argues that it is an issue for the local government ministry to resolve. Evidences are available that clearly suggested that something must be done to control the problem of unethical behaviour in the Local Government Councils. Remember persons in positions of trust are to have ethical standards beyond those of an ordinary person. Persons holding positions of public trust must be people of virtue.

Stakeholders are demanding a more equitable system of local government that is conducive to ethical standards. Yet the seeming lack of interest in exercising leadership responsibility to purge the system of unethical behaviour is a matter of concern. Violations of public trust have occurred, which has shown that the system is at times not capable or is unwilling to control such behaviour. It is pointless in having the individual Codes of Conduct promulgated as a local law as there is no assurance that they will be adequately policed in order to control unethical behaviour. Perhaps a more practical way of resolving the dilemma of unethical behaviour in local government, and to demonstrate responsible leadership would be for the State Government to either, proclaim an Act of Parliament that deals specifically with ethics in local government or amend the appropriate State Public Sector legislation to include local government.

It goes without saying that the local government system must be pro-active rather than waiting for the State Government to act, by developing an Act of organisational ethical standards through the process of in-house workshops to be attended by Councillors and all staff. The interaction of the workshops will provide valuable input for the development of a Code of Conduct, which everyone will own rather than having a Code developed by the Executives of the organisation. Monitoring of ethical standards can be achieved by the distribution of an autonomous questionnaire on an annual basis to all concerned in-house asking specific questions related to the operations of the ethical standards of the organisation. This procedure will provide the opportunity for the fine-tuning of the ethical standards.

Ethics training it is submitted is something that local government has not really addressed. Nevertheless, an in-house ethics-training program can be developed without much difficulty, by utilising the ethics training manuals published by recognised organisations for Public Administration. The material published by these organisations considers such issues as honesty, integrity, ethical decision-making, accountability and ethical responsibility in an organisational context. Or alternatively it would be possible to enlist the services of a local training agency to provide ethics training for Councilors and staff.

Local government cannot afford to be inactive on the issues of ethical standards and ethics training, as it is imperative that such measures are implemented to counteract unethical behaviour.

Ekerete John Ekerete

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