Alignment of values and principles 30 9 2019

Alignment of values and principles 30. 9. 2019 Anna Gau Day 1: Values-Driven Public Sector: Building State Capacity through Professional Ethics and Integrity

Background • Finland has chosen value based approach in promoting high standards of ethics in State Administration. • The values of State Administration are built on the value base of a democratic constitutional state. • One of the objectives of the state personnel policy is consolidation and utilisation of the Government’s shared value base and uniform operational culture. • Values in the daily job – civil servant’s ethics -handbook: • Hanbook covers the core values: Trust, responsibility, neutrality, independence, transparency, effectiveness, service principle, equality, quality and expertise. • In order to maintain high ethical standards of state administration, the values must be visible in everyday work. 2

Surveys for civil servants and for citizens • The Ministry of Finance has conducted two surveys on civil service ethics, survey for civil servants (2015) and survey for citizens (2016). • The civil servant survey looked at different aspects of civil service ethics: the change of values in central government, the principles of civil service ethics, situations that present ethical problems as well as different means by which a high level of civil service ethics could be maintained and improved. • The focus of the survey for citizens was to understand citizens’ opinion of the importance of different values and how they are reflected in the work of civil servants. • The research investigated citizens’ trust in the Finnish government and in the work of its civil servants. A total of 61% of Finns considered that the government and the work of its civil servants could be trusted. 3

Challenges experienced • • In Finland people tend to think that there is not almost any corruption. • For example Finland usually scores high in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (ranked 3 rd in 2018). • This does not tell the whole truth though → Instead of streetlevel corruption, Finland is characterised by larger-scale structural corruption that is more difficult to detect → linked to unethical conduct in the public sector. No systematic ethics training within the State Administration: • According to the survey for civil servants, more than half of the respondents (58 %) saw that training on civil service ethics is needed at their agency. 6

Challenges experienced • Values discussions: • According to the survey for civil servants, 21 % felt that there was no discussion on values. • Awareness of the value-related documents: • Example: The Values in the Daily Job -handbook was published 2005 and even though the contents of the handbook is still relevant, civil servants are not very familiar with the handbook. • According to the survey for civil servants, 32 % had heard about the book but only 16 % answered that they had read it. • Time and resources for developing and promoting ethics. 7

What needs to be done? • In Finland the main priority is to increase awareness and discussion in ethics/value-related topics. • Awareness of values and principles in civil service ethics cannot take root if they are not discussed within a work community or more widely in public. • Strong administrative culture is needed: • Ethics education and training. • Promoting transparency further. 8

What has been done • • Developing the systematic ethics training: • The Network for Civil Service Ethics: Informal group of experts from different State agencies that is developing a new ethics day for the State administration. • In ethics day following themes will be covered and discussed: Core values, ABC of civil service ethics and anti-corruption. • The State Audit has created an online course about civil service ethics. The course was published in April 2019 in e. Oppiva, an online learning platform within the Finnish state administration. Code of Ethics: • • Some state agencies have drawn up their own code of ethics (The Office of Prosecutor General 2016, the Natural Resources Institute 2017, the Finnish Police 2019). Open Government Partnership: Increasing transparency and trust. → High level of integrity requires constant work. ”There is no single trick available” 9