LECTURE-3
ETHICAL DILEMMAS AND CONCERNS IN GOVERNANCE
· Ethics is integrated to public administration. It deals with the public administrator's responsible actions and decisions
· The levels of ethics is governance are dependent on the social, economic, political, cultural, legal, judicial ( inquisitorial system/ adversarial system ) context of the country.
· A public administrator is a highly influenced by system of accepted beliefs, modes and values.
· They are rules of official conduct for administrator.
· Indian scriptures, Chinese philosopher, Aristotle, utilitarian view point, Rawls Theory of Justice (Expansion ) have fixed many responsibilities for an administrator.
· Public administrators are guides of the Welfare State of India (Nanny State) . They should be guarded properly to avoid misconceivement of public interest and promotion of self-interest.
· The modern context many new theories have developed to guide the behaviour of a public administrator like New Public Management, New Public Administration etc.
· Among thinkers of public administration Max Weber has highlighted the ethical importance of bureaucratic behavior.
· He makes the distinction between organisation and a personal holding .In the organisation he emphasises on the need to prevent the misuse of official position for personal gains.
· Despite having norms, there is the difference between expected and the executed behaviour of an administrator.
· Fred Riggs calls it the difference between Formalism and Nepotism , ideal and the real.
· In Indian context, immoral behaviour has become the integral component of Bureau Pathology.
· The history of the country influences administrative behaviour like spoils system of US.
· In Indian history, Kautilya's Arthashashtra, The Mughal Empire, the East India Company have empirical evidence of corrupt practices.
· The forces of property and immorality too exist in politico-administrative system of a country.
· The unethical practices and governance enhances the tolerance level for administrative immorality.
· The distinction between the Governing Elite and Citizens has been reduced . The spirit of Emotional Unity with the citizens is absent.
· In socio cultural context, values permeated in society influences administrative behavior. Individual prefers wealth to any other value in contemporary Indian society and this is followed by an administrator too.
· In the means-ends debate, ends have become more important than means
· The Civilisation progress has stopped.
· The growth of individual has halted.
· The priority order of society has become unethical. The family values, education system and perspectives of thinking have been degenerated.
· The religious ethics are subject to subjective distortions.
· The culture of hard work is being replaced by earning wealth without efforts.
· Work ethics are at the lowest ebb.
· The mindset of citizens has accepted corrupt practices in the society.
· In legal judicial context, the efficiency of ethical concerns is dependent on a neatly formulated law, as a confusing law promotes corruption in administration.
· An efficient, effective and fast Track justice system can be a stumbling block for corrupt moral practices.
· The complex procedures a web of corrupt administrator and bilaterally anti-corruption machinery of government promotes corruption at administrative level.
· In political context, political leadership has potent influence on the norms and values of citizens & administrators.
· The idea of gross self-interest is missing in Indian Administrative Culture.
· The highly expensive elections are reimbursed through fair and foul means in form of corruption.
· Administrative morality and general social morality are at the lowest ebb. Therefore rulers also do not have stronger moral fibre.
· The behaviour of politicians has direct Domino effect on Civil Servants. This leads to catalyst effect on the promotion of unethical behaviour of administrators
· The level of economic development also has direct impact on level of ethics. Inequality in the economic order and more deprived section of society may get tempted to compromise their values for their existence and security.
· In liberalizing, economic regime, there are many exogenous inducements to administrative change.
Issues of ethics focus and concern
· An important question arises in connection with moral obligation Of administrative system
· This moral obligation includes probity within the administrative system, ethical Ambience in the socio economic system, issue of responsibility etc
· The Axis of Administrative morality is ethical decision making
· The essential concerns in administration are values of justice and fairness and objectivity. This leads to building of value hierarchy within formal legal aspects of Administrative law
· Fairness, objectivity, equity are influenced by nepotism favouratism And greed
· There are certain salient aspects of ethics in public administration
Integrity:- Mans using his position honestly and not to serve personal and inllegitimate interests through his position.
Transparency:- Means making an implementing decision fairly. The affected of decisions should be able to access rationable behind the decision
Justice:- Promotes equality, equity, fairness, impartiality and objectivity. It also includes absence of social treatment on the basis of status, position, power, gender, class, caste and wealth
National Interest:- It is universalistic in orientation A Civil Servant while performing his duties should estimate the impact of his actions on nation's strength and Prestige
Compassion:- An administrator is expected to have compassion for the poor, the disabled and the weak, but this compassion should be within prescribed laws and rules
Utilitarianism:- An administrator is accepted to have greatest good of greatest number of people. But in India context, he is accepted to have Welfare of all (Sarv Jan Hit, Sarv Jan Sukhaya)
Responsiveness and Resilience:- An administrator is expected to adapt to environmental transformation. In situations of deviation from the prescribed ethical norms as administrator should show and ability to bounce back
Fusion of interests:- An administrator is expected to bring about a fusion of individual, organisational and social goals
Excellence:- An administrator is expected to ensure the highest standards of equality in administrative decisions and actions. He would not compromise with standards because of convenience and complacency
Work commitment:- An administrator is expected to have respect for time, punctuality and fulfillment of promises made. An administrator must be committed to do his duties and perform his work with involvement, intelligence, dexterity (skillfulness)
Responsibility and accountability:- An administrator should not hesitate to accept the responsibility for his decisions and actions. He should be willing to be accountable to higher authorities for governance and decision making
Legality and rationality:- An administrator is expected to follow in laws and rules. He should be willing to govern and guide various categories of policies and decisions
Features of code of Administrative ethics
· The issues of code of ethics has American origin
· In 1924, the international city country Management Association adopted first code of ethics in municipal governance
· In 1958, code of ethics was introduced by US Congress at government level
· In 1978, ethics in Government act was passed under the act office of government ethics was formed
· In 1992, office of government ethics formed a code of ethical conduct which was comprehensive in nature and applicable to Federal government after that all American States promulgated their respective administrative codes of ethics
· In India, there are few training programmes on administrative Ethics
· We need a code for following needs
Ø For establishing procedures to promote ethical behaviour
Ø To check conflict of interest and its appearance in any form
Ø To maintain truthfulness and honesty
Ø To protect the constitutional principles of equity, fairness, representativeness etc
Ø To prevent mismanagement of public funds
Ø To exercise optimism, fairness, benevolence and compassion in administrative behaviour
Ø To recognise and support the public right to know the public business
Ø To exercise discretionary authority to promote public and national interest
Ø To deal with critical moral paradoxes of Administrative decision
Ø To fix do's and donts of Administrative behaviour
Ø To understand essentiality of realism while defining morality
Nature of work ethics in public administration
· The work ethics of public administration requires
Ø Fulfillment of one's official responsibilities
Ø Dedication to the work
Ø Involvement in administrative task
Ø Sincerity to official duties
Ø Efficiency to make maximum possible utilisation of human, material and financial resources
Ø Genuine regard of public welfare
Ø Possession of natural administrative morality
Ø More emphasis on quality on quality of services and goods than mechanical productivity
Ø Feeling oneness with organisation and the job
Ø Being concerned for beneficiaries
Ø Devicing strategies for improving work ethics
Ø An inclusive performance appraisal system
Ø A concurrent system of effective monitoring and work audit
Ø Punctuality and promptness in administrative affairs
Ø Absence of indolence, indecidion, inefficiency and dishonestly
Ø Being people oriented and people centric
Ø Empathetic as well as sympathetic to feeling of Roman person
Ø Demonstrating emotional as well as spiritual intelligence
Ø Empathy and compassion to be real, authentic and profound
Ø Developing universality of Administrative rationality
Ø Inculcating courtesy and politeness in administrative behaviour
Ø To provide correct and useful information to clients
Ø To redress satisfactorily citizens grievances
Ø Giving through explanation to citizens queries
Ø Having respectful attitude to citizens
Conclusion:- Thus ethics has regained its status as a distinctive feature of good governance and total quality management
New dimensions of work ethics:-
· Openness is halting corruption (RTI)
· Special attention needed for the transformation of minds of civil servants
· Making legislation compatible to contemporary reality
· Motivating people to get the work done in right manner
· Protecting the whistleblower
· Empowering the voice of protest against administrative atrocities
· Having special Hotel line to curb corruption
· Need of civil services Commissioner hear complaints against the Civil servants
Obstacles to ethical accountability in public administration:
· The parliamentary control through questions, debate and communities in highly Limited
· The reports of CAG are just a post mortem
· The administrative system lacks inner check on public administrators conduct
· There is lack of synthesis of external and internal check that determine the parameter of Administrative ethics
· There is more emphasis on fixing accountability and establishment control then fixing higher level of work ethics
· Even "Max Weber" whose name is synonym with 'Bureaucracy' has accepted the outside checks are inadequate to fix the accountability of public administration
· The large prevalence of corruption is breeding immorality in governance
· Employees union are used for political processes and not for collective bargaining agreements
· An imitative from trivial or Petty morality is missing
· Orthodox loyality among juniors and seniors is getting strengthened at the cost of loyalty towards the organisation
· Public interest, role of administrator, and obligations of Civil Servant are regularly mis-interrupted
· Excessive legal and constitutional security is being provided to Civil Servant (article 311)
· There is lack of coordination in inter-departmental activities
· Complex procedures to prosecute the government officials and absence of Fast Track Courts fail to put check on civil servants
· The massive expansion of Bureaucracy is creating problem of fixing regulatory, developmental, promotional and enterprenurial responsibilities of civil servants
· The civil servants have full time control over their powers but instruments that fixes their responsibilities like legislators and media cannot putt full time control over them
· The works of civil servants required special expertise and information
· The speciality cannot easily be put under check by a generalist legislator or media person or legal experts like judiciary
New Public Management : Contemporary View
· To give efficiency to traditional public administration a new perspective – New public management have been developed
· It is exclusively based on performance and results
· It emphasises on customer satisfaction
· It creates favourable environment for Ethical behaviour
· It emphasises on government required innovations
· It believes in carving a more effective administrative system
· It develops canon of self accountability
· It emphasises more on balance perspective
· It believes in promoting greatest trust in public system
· In enforces optimum Vigilance and minimum possible control
· It enhances bureaucratic socialisation through Training
· It makes ethics an integral and prominent part of induction training and in service training
· It emphasises on direct impact on the mindset of government functionary to counter ethical laxity and compromises
· The media can play important role in enforcing the standard fixed for administrators under new public management
· In past many efforts have already been done in this regard like
· AD Gorwala emphasized on cardinal philosophical Premises of Good administration
· Santhanam Committee report on prevention of corruption in India made many recommendations for fixing ethical standards in this regard
· The railway corruption enquiry committee by Acharya Kriplani in 1955 recommended many Strategies for integrating moral values with administration system at various levels
· Second Administrative Reforms Commission in 2005 has dealt with the issue of ethics in depth
· The administrative ethics in 21st century are likely to be different
· There is increasing convergence of the ethical concerns at cross National level
· Universaly uniform configuration of governors system are emerging
· The classical concerns of public administration like efficiency, responsibility, accountability and integrity still hold good
· There are many emergent beliefs like equity, justice, openness, compassion, altruism, responsiveness, human rise and human dignity
· The amalgamation of classical concerns and emergent believes would lead to formation of a new citizenship committed administrative morality
Essentials to ensure practice of Administrative ethics
Political Neutrality it means-
Ø giving free and Frank advice to government impartially
Ø Administrative decisions are taken without any political consideration
Ø Public confidence in the administration against the political influences
Ø Trust among the ministers that their order would be executed despite having difference of ideology
Ø Appraisal and promotion of Civil Servant free from political influence
Ø Emphasising on welfare, Service Delivery and timely action as an administrative responsibility
Impartiality it means-
Ø Performing public business as administrative duty
Ø Absence of corruption and favouratism
Ø Maintaining dignity and authority of the public office
Ø Developing National Outlook for administrative decisions
Ø Making administrative work free from bias and prejudice
Ø Developing highest type of Administrative ethos, attitude, perception and conduct of its members
Character Building it means-
Ø Developing civil consciousness, patriotism and discipline among the citizens
Ø Integrating administrative character for modernisation and development
Ø Maintaining effective collaboration with its citizens
Ø Developing general decency of a nation and specific decency of public administration
Ø Developing general morality of the community to deligate it to the concerned administrator
Favourable opinion to public services it means-
Ø Popular acceptance and community participation in administration
Ø Developing climate of understanding in public relations
Ø Maintaining legitimacy, effectiveness and credibility of Administration
Ø Promoting harmony and mutual trust among people and public administrator
Ø Bending community opinion favourably towards public services
Infusion of ethics in politics it means-
Ø Political Elite through their integrity can include fairness and impartiality in administrative system
Ø Devaluation of moral values and ethical ideas in public life leads to corruption and interference
Ø The credibility gap between Political and administrative leadership is on the increase
Ø Decision must be made on the needs of the organisations instead of on the whims of the political Elite
Ø Emphasis should be on the performance instead of paper planning
Excellence in service it means-
Ø Bringing structure changes and growth with people participation
Ø Performing development linked administrative duties
Ø Enhancing attitude of dedication in administration
Ø Creating climate of creativity and optimum performance
Ø Developing a pursuit of excellence in services regarding professional activities
Ø Not taking job merely as a wage earning point
Ø Denying excessive sense of self importance and arrogance among public Servants
Ø Developing synergetic relationship between Political leadership and administrative hierarchy to develop highest ethical standards.
Q; What is the difference between formalism and realism in context of the Indian Administrative System (Public Administration in India ) ? – 250 words