Concern over delay in code of conduct

THE vast majority of public servants are not bound by any code of conduct — seven years after legislation was passed on the issue, the state’s ethics watchdog has warned.

Launching its sixth annual report, the Standards in Public Office Commission said it was very concerned that four in five public servants still have no code of conduct because parts of the Standards in Public Office Act 2001 have not been implemented.

It criticised the “delay” by the Minister for Finance in giving full effect to the provisions of the act.

“The lack of a statutory code or codes of conduct for the overwhelming majority of persons in the public service could create serious difficulties for it in the event of a complaint coming before it,” said Sipo chairman Judge Matthew P Smith.

“While statutory codes of conduct already apply to civil servants and local authority employees, around 80% of public servants are not subject to any code of conduct.

“The Minister for Finance should urgently address this issue in order to provide appropriate ethical guidance to public servants.”

The annual report showed the commission received 47 complaints during 2007, including two against former taoiseach Bertie Ahern which the commission decided did not warrant investigation. The complaints related to the money he accepted from businessmen while he was finance minister in the early 1990s.

There was no ethics legislation in place at the time — a factor in the commission’s decision.

“The payments to Mr Ahern which were the subject of the complaints were made before the enactment and commencement of the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995 on July 22, 1995,” the report said.

“The payment of a gift of stg£8,000 from a group of businessmen in Manchester in October 1994 was outside the scope of the 1995 Act [and] the payments to Mr Ahern in 1993 and 1994 by twelve friends, if characterised as gifts, fell wholly outside the scope of the 1995 act.

“Having considered all the material available to it, the Standards Commission concluded that the complaints did not warrant the initiation of an investigation.”

Elsewhere in the report, the commission reiterated its calls for new rules to regulate funding for political parties, stating: “If the intention of electoral legislation is to provide for transparency and openness in relation to party funding and expenditure, then it is not achieving this aim.”

The commission said that the various political parties and candidates had spent €11.08m in total on last year’s general election, yet less than €1.7m of this amount was declared as donations.

That meant more than €9.3m was effectively unaccounted for, demonstrating that parties and politicians can raise massive sums of money but avoid declaring it by requesting donors to ensure their contributions are beneath the reporting thresholds.

Under law, parties are obliged to disclose publicly only those donations which exceed €5,078.95 in value. Individual politicians are obliged to disclose only those donations which exceed €634.87.