Ethics, Integrity and Accountability
What the exam tests
Applying public-service values under pressure: identifying and managing conflicts of interest, protecting whistleblowers, resisting improper influence and accounting for decisions.
Core rules
- Integrity is a system, not a personality trait: standards, codes, training, risk assessment, oversight and enforcement, plus a culture in which advice can be challenged.
- Conflicts of interest are actual, potential or perceived; the test is whether a reasonable observer would doubt impartiality. Declare, register, recuse and document, and ensure an alternative decision-maker.
- Gifts and hospitality: register them, apply thresholds, refuse where influence could be inferred; transparency removes ambiguity.
- Post-employment and revolving-door rules restrict lobbying for a set period; procurement and recruitment panels must record declarations.
- Whistleblowing protection requires confidential channels, protection from retaliation and independent follow-up.
- Accountability means answering to parliament, courts, auditors and the public: keep records, give reasons, and submit to freedom-of-information requests and audit.
Worked example
An official whose spouse works for a bidder advises on the tender. Reasoning: declare the interest immediately to the line manager and the panel; record it in the register; assess whether the role materially affects the tender; recuse from evaluation and from influencing the specification; appoint an independent chair; document the mitigation in the procurement file so the audit trail demonstrates impartiality. An apparent conflict is managed exactly like an actual one.
Traps
Managing only actual conflicts; treating ethics as compliance rather than judgement; staying silent when unsure; retaliating against a whistleblower; gift creep through small favours; and deciding without a recorded rationale.