International Colloquy How to improve public ethic standards at local and regional levels
Kyiv, 15 September 2011
I am pleased to be here as a member of the Congress of the Council of Europe and, being a member of the Regional Council of the of the Vysocina Region in the Czech Republic, I am also pleased to bring to the debate the perspective of a locally elected politician.
Allow me to start with the present context and the recent challenges at local and regional level.
For several years, national governments have increased the amount of tasks shifted to lower levels of governance more and more. Actually, governments recognise that they can no longer cope alone with all the issues they have to deal with.
In addition, we all know that a large portion of the citizens’ needs can be better satisfied by local and regional authorities who enjoy proximity to the citizens and have better knowledge of the needs and expectations of their communities. Public services can, in fact, be delivered more efficiently at the level closest to the citizen.
All this implies a transfer of responsibilities and financial means to levels below the European and national ones. This trend implies the devolution of power to local and regional authorities. This increases their potential but also brings about new responsibilities, new duties and new risks for local and regional authorities.
Nowadays, local and regional authorities manage a significant amount of public expenditure and are, amongst other things, directly responsible for public works, issuing permits, inspecting businesses and so on.
This opens the way to risks of unethical attitudes and to various forms of corruption. Power, in fact, brings responsibilities and opens the doors to possible abuse. The question of the quality of governance and the capacity for governing at local level has then reached the top of the political agenda.
The need for ethical governance and ethical standards for territorial authorities is taking on a growing importance and it is becoming a recurring debate.
But we must not forget that ethics is a necessary element for building trust between elected representatives and their electorate. Such trust is a prerequisite for the welfare of our societies.
From one hand, political representatives have a fundamental role to play; they are required to behave in an accountable and transparent way and to respect ethical standards.
On the other hand, improving governance also means stimulating people’s interest in local democracy, motivating them and involving them in the democratic decision-making processes. This can make the citizens feel committed to the destiny of their respective community.
Finally, citizens’ involvement - being a form of public control - is essential: it is a prerequisite for greater transparency and accountability in governing processes. There is a strong link between the behaviour of elected representatives, its ethical component and the quality of governance.
Allow me now to give you a brief overview of the situation in the Czech Republic, as a contribution to the experience exchange foreseen to-day.
In the Czech Republic, regulations granting the respect of the rule of law and of public ethics are generally issued by the national authorities. Action against corruption is one of the priorities of the Czech government. The key document which identifies the strategy is the Policy Statement of the Czech Government of 4 August 2010. One of its main objective is to adopt measures to increase transparency in public procurement and reduce corruption in the public sector.
An important act is also Act No. 312/2002 amended by Act No. 159/2006, which concerns public officials of territorial local governments and deals with conflicts of interests and corruption. Other instrument do exist, such as:
- The Government Resolution No. 1 of 5 January 2011 on the Government anti-corruption strategy for the period of 2011 and 2012,
- The Ministry of the Interior policy paper “Jointly against corruption” ;
These can undoubtedly represent effective instruments – in particular for the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry for Local Development – with a view to enforce the respect of legality .
Under the Czech Constitution, territorial local governments are allowed to legal intervention only within the scope of their competencies. In practice the competencies for investigating and fighting corruption are in reality very much spread among several authorities.
At local and regional level the risk of unethical behaviour, that may lead to corruption cases, generally occurs in calls for tenders for providing public services and in the distribution of subsidies.
What territorial authorities can do - and in several cases they do it - is to impose strict requirements for complying with legal regulations in granting subsidies and to put in place inspections. This can avoid abuses on public spending at territorial level.
But, as said, territorial authorities do not issue in general legal regulations in these areas as they lack legal competences. Nevertheless, at local level, the Association of Regions of the Czech Republic project issued the project: “Methodological support of regional anti-corruption actions”.
The objective of the project is to contribute to corruption prevention at the level of territorial governments by strengthening regional management (in particular by creating strategies to map and assess corruption risks, to evaluate anti-corruption measures and to train regional senior officials). The strategy of the project is based on well established practices applied in other countries. Another objective of the project is to acquire knowledge and share experiences between the Czech Republic and selected EU regions, compare them in a comparative study for finally transferring the know-how gained. The project can increase the quality of management in specific regional authorities as well as its transparency and openness.
Undoubtedly, the concrete enforcement of legal regulations and the adoption of codes of ethics can be considered as a priority. In addition, one measure that could be introduced is to prevent persons, who have shown to be corrupted, to have access to decision making on public instruments and to other decisions in areas where corruption can occur.
What could be also done is to launch wide coverage initiatives to raise public awareness on the need to keep and respect ethical standards - both within the public and the private sector -. The purpose should be to strengthen the conviction that unethical behaviour, abuses and corruption are unacceptable.
I believe that the way to follow at local and regional level is to promote the respect of ethical values and legality and establish a new culture of transparency. This would also improve the prestige and the efficiency of local and regional administrations.