I am writing this content particularly to let others know and consider
the connections of ethics and values in Governance and Mal-practices known as
Corruption in the Systems. The goal of Government is to provide access to
public services to each common man and for this purpose departments and
organizations are set-up. Government is constantly improving the systems
through ensuring Transparency, Governance, Quality, Responsiveness in the
Systems. But there are always use, misuse or abuse of financial resources,
administrative powers, and other authorities and interventions for private
gains with abusing trust and intentional violation of duty (reference to Mostert
S, Sitaresmi MN, Njuguna F, van Beers EJ, Kaspers GJ. Effect of corruption on
medical care in low-income countries. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2012;58(3):325–6).
In other words, I may not be wrong if I put it as follows:
Corruption = f (Governance)
Corruption is the function of Governance. And
Governance = f (Ethics, Values)
Governance is the function of Ethics and Values.
Corruption and
Governance:
Needless to say, the Government in
every economy is committed to raise the level of Governance to combat corruption.
It is fact that the Governance improves through transparency because, the
transparency enables the authorities to grab the corrupt-practices and corrupt
people and punish them as per the rules, regulations, and laws. The corruption
is a great hurdle in the economic development and the decisions to control
corruption i.e. anti-corruption efforts of public authorities improve
prosperity, enhance security, and promote transparency. It is required to have
a look at 'How Corruption is becoming an alarming issue and decisions are
being taken to improve transparency in Governance Systems'.
How Mal-practices grow in the Public
Sector Organizations:
There are
different forms of corrupt practices resulted from unethical behaviours of the
stake-holders of Public Sector Organizations such as absenteeism, bribery,
informal payments to get work done, use of resources, access, and utilization
of services etc.
Such mal-practices
or modes of corruption directly and sometimes indirectly increases the
financial burden on the poor households of the economy who are not enough
capable to stand with the mal-practices for getting their works done and they
further become poorer. The economic inequalities increase which led to crime,
unemployment, regional disparities and other economic problems.
How Governance contain Mal-practices?
The
Governance promotes transparency and fix the accountability, promotes citizen
participation in public services (such as using Citizen Charter), initiatives
for containing corruption (such as use of e-payments in Government), and Laws
and Regulations of anti-corruption (such as Right to Information Act).
The
Social Audit is also a good tool for identifying the corruption in Government
organizations.
If
good governance principles and structures are not in place, this provides
greater opportunity for corruption. Corruption, in turn, can prevent good
governance principles and structures from being put in place, or enforced.
Violations of the principles of transparency, accountability and rule of law
appear to be most closely associated with corruption. In the end, corruption
and poor governance are security challenges which undermine democracy, the rule
of law and economic development. (Reference to an Article on “Corruption and
Bad Governance” in Anti-Corruption Module 2: Corruption and Good Governance of
UNODC organization).
Fighting Corruptions with Inculcating
Values and Ethical Considerations:
A
Course on “Ethics and Values in Financial Administration” is framed
particularly to inculcate the values, sensitize the officers for ethical
considerations, never committing mis-conduct, and fight corruption at all
levels of service delivery in the organizations. It is fact that in newspapers,
we read most of the times that there are allegations of fraud and corruption
and most of the times, the employees found guilty and suspended by the
authorities. It is important to put in place the Standard Operating Procedures
keeping in view Result oriented Frameworks, to prevent mal-practices and also
to fix the accountability of the officers with enforcement mechanisms strong enough
to contain the corrupt practices (if any).
Covid-19 Pandemic and Challenge of
inculcating Ethics and Values:
With
the pandemic of Covid-19, the expenses to contain it, and also to ensure fast
economic activities within government organizations, the rules and regulations
can be mis-used easily if Governance levels are low in the system. The corrupt
activities can increase the wastage of resources, theft of store items and
assets, and misuse of cash as well as other financial resources.
Course on Ethics and Values in
Financial Administration:
Purpose
Learning
Outcomes
By the end of this course,
participants will be able to:
•
Describe and ensure the compliance of Punjab Financial Rules including
Cannons of Financial Proprieties.
•
Describe the rules for maintenance of Cash Book, utilization of
Financial Resources, Use of e-Governance i.e. Online Budgeting, e-Billing and
HRMS for Effective Financial Administration.
The topics which are to be covered
include Ethics
and Values in Financial Administration, Duties and
Responsibilities of Finance Officers & DDOs, Governance and
Financial Considerations at Workspace, Financial Rules for Cash
Management, Ethics and Values in Administrative Functions,
Financial
Administration with Online Budgeting, e-Governance Using HRMS,
e-Governance
Using e-Billing, and FAQs for clarifying the doubts of the
participants.