Integrity checks should be carried out on prospective ministers, says Council of Europe

The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption called on Irish authorities to adopt further measures to help to prevent corruption among people with top executive functions in central government and also in An Garda Síochána.

Integrity checks should be carried out before ministers and people with top executive functions join the government here, and their declarations of interests should contain more detailed information and be subject to systematic checks.

The recommendation is included in the fifth evaluation report of Ireland conducted by the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (Greco).

In the report published on Thursday, the group called on Irish authorities to adopt further measures to help to prevent corruption among people with top executive functions in central government and also in An Garda Síochána.

It noted that existing policy documents that were intended to prevent corruption lack the necessary focus on people with top executive functions, including ministers, ministers of state, the attorney general, secretaries general, and special advisers.

The report also called for the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) to be given more resources and stronger powers to supervise the implementation of standards.

The anti-corruption group noted that there are no integrity checks for persons contemplated for a post of minister or minister of state ahead of their appointments or right upon it.

Such checks would serve the purpose of managing possible conflicts of interest beforehand or organising for certain areas of the ministerial portfolio to be dealt with by another minister in case of potential conflict of interest.” 

The group also recommended that codes of conduct for persons with top executive functions covering conflicts of interest, contact with lobbyists, gifts and hospitality, and confidential information be adopted together with proportionate sanctions and practical guidance.

Post-employment restrictions also need to be tightened, says the report, and need to be coupled with appropriate checks by Sipo.

In relation to An Garda Síochána, Greco stressed that the existing code of ethics should be strengthened to cover a wider range of topics, in particular, relating to conflicts of interest.

It added that integrity training needs to be expanded accordingly and made compulsory for new recruits as well as serving personnel.

IT systems

In addition, information technology systems need to be further developed to better monitor integrity breaches committed by Garda members.

Regular checks are also needed on secondary activities to prevent conflicts of interest occurring over time.

Greco is a Council of Europe body that aims to improve the capacity of its members to fight corruption by monitoring their compliance with anti-corruption standards.

It aims to help states to identify deficiencies in national anti-corruption policies, prompting the necessary legislative, institutional, and practical reforms.