CORRUPTION PREVENTION IN CIVIL SERVICECase of Finland

Astana Economic Forum, 21 May 2015 Anneli Temmes

1. Introduction to the Finnish Public Sector2. Finnish strengths in supporting good governance and corruption prevention3. Principles of civil service ethics4. Legal norms5. Administrative arrangements6. Training to support good governance and corruption prevention7. HAUS Finnish Institute of Public Management8. Consequences of unethical behaviour9. Conclusions

Main contents

Introduction to the Finnish Public Sector

• Three-level model: central, regional and local • State administration

‐ Central administration‐ Regional state administration‐ Local state administration

• Number of state civil servants app. 82 000• Number of municipal officials app. 420 000

• Open/career system: fixed term or permanent appointments through open recruitment• Small cadre of political appointees (11 state secretaries)• State Civil Servants’ Act, State Pension’s Act• Highly educated personnel (29% have higher degree or post-graduate training)• Equality between women and men (51 % men, 49 % women)• Average age 45 years

Finnish strenghts in supporting good governance and corruption prevention

• A value based administration• Strictly legalistic culture • Transparency and openness: all decisions must be well reasoned• Reasonable salary for public servants• Good education of public servants• Long tradition of cultural attitude against corruption• Free media• Free access to official documents• Mostly non-political civil servants• High respect and trust in civil servants (e.g. police, boarder guard, administration)

Finland as one of the least corrupted countries

• High position in Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (Finland on the top together with Denmark and New Zealand)• Obvious reasons:

‐ Cultural and historical‐ Pay policy‐ High values in public sector

‐ Efficiency, transparency, quality, strong professionalism, trust, service-orientation, equality

‐ High pressure from the public and media

• Still there has been some cases…• How to keep the present position?

Principles and practices of civil service ethics

• Strong emphasis on civil service ethics • Management and work in civil service based on values• Legislation, code of ethics, open discussions• Well-defined procedures• Training and development• Behavioral expectations and consequenses• Internal and external control • International benchmarking

Legal norms

• Constitution ‐ E.g. rule of law, basic rights

• State civil servants’ act‐ E.g. rights and obligations of civil servants

• Openness of government act‐ E.g. public documents, good information management

• Administrative procedure act‐ E.g. advice, right to be heard

• Act on public procurement‐ E.g. equal treatment of companies, competitive bidding

• Penal code‐ E.g. bribery, official secrecy, abuse of public office, violation of official duty

Administrative arrangements:Key role of the Ministry of Finance

• The Ministry of Finance as the responsible body for the civil service ethics• The Government decision in principle (2001)

‐ Values of the state were redefined,‐ Government policy states that the state administration must be value-led and

of high ethical standard

• Working groups on ethics• Anti-corruption network led by the Ministry of Justice• Active international co-operation (Nordic, OECD. CoE, EU)

Training to support good governance and prevention of corruption

• High trust and interest in civil service training

• Deep and long expertise in development of management and staff capacities in civil service

• Management training programmes directly linked with the state managerial policies

• Career Development programmes like ”Government Passport”, “Leaders of the Future”, etc.

• Models to support top leaders

• Coaching and mentoring in preparing of Personal Development Plan

• Training e.g. on ethics, public procurement, personnel management, law drafting, financial management and accounting

• Performance and personality evaluation tools

• Close cooperation between public administration and civil service training institutes

Role of HAUS, Finnish Institute of Public Management, in prevention of

corruption through training and development

• HAUS as the Finnish civil service training institute• Good governance, civil service ethics and corruption prevention are an

important part of training and development projects of HAUS • Themes included in most training programmes e.g. in management training• Special short courses e.g. on civil service ethics, public procurement,

financial control, HRM-development• Corruption cases are taken very seriously and also discussed in training• A lot of international discussion on EU-level and among European civil

service training institutes

Consequences of unethical behaviour and some example cases

• Written warning • Termination of a civil-service relationship • Immediate cancellation of a civil-service relationship • Unpleasant publicity• Becoming a “case”• Example cases:

‐ Trips (more strict rules concerning travelling)‐ Gifts to civil servants and their families‐ Participation in different events‐ More cases in local administration

Conclusions

• Good governance, civil service ethics and anti-corruption need support from the whole society• High political will is essential• Nothing is self-evident, even in the least corrupted countries: open

discussion and work on all levels of society should be regular• Legal instruments should be effectively implemented; in Finland laws are

not very detailed (trust in civil servants’ understanding of the limits)• Good governance and corruption prevention are included in all civil service

training• International discussion and exchanging experiences is essential