State agency staff ‘lack governance’

THE state’s ethics watchdog has sharply criticised the Government for failing to introduce legal rules to govern the conduct of employees of state agencies.

The Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) highlighted its concerns about the issue in its 2008 report, published yesterday.

It said provision for a statutory code of conduct for directors and employees of state agencies had been made more than seven years previously in the Standards in Public Office Act 2001.