Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Ethics Infrastructure
The Ethics Infrastructure
Infrastructure
An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Initiative
Introduction
In real life, and in the management of society and human kind in
general, if everyone made ethical decisions and if everyone had high
integrity, there would be no need for laws, rules, and regulations.
Laws, rules and regulations are instituted to guide people into making
ethical choices that would benefit themselves and the society as a
whole
The ideal mix and degree of these functions will depend on the cultural and political-
administrative milieu of each country.
Elements of the Ethics Infrastructure
1. Political Commitment
In the absence of sustained political commitment to ethical behavior
in the administration, efforts to encourage such behavior will be in
vain.
The high standards of ethical conduct expected of public officials are one
side of the coin.
The other side is a “package” which provides decent working and living
conditions for the “servants of the public”.
In reviewing its legal framework, a country must check that existing criminal codes and civil service
laws, conflict of interest statutes and other regulations which apply to public servants are clear and
consistent.
The Japanese law on the ethics of public servants passed in 1999 requires the Cabinet to establish
a new code of conduct as a government order which bans public servants from receiving gifts
and/or entertainment from private companies under their jurisdiction. Furthermore, senior
officials in the central government will be required to report gifts or entertainment worth more
than 5000 yen, with some in higher positions required to report their stock transactions and
income as well
Elements of the Ethics Infrastructure
7. Efficient accountability mechanisms