Stop State’s top officials selling out

THE brain drain of top civil servants from the higher echelons of the public service to the more lucrative private sector is a growing phenomenon in this country.

Lured by better pay, perks and pensions, senior officials could perhaps be forgiven for taking up consultative posts in industry and business.

Obviously, what makes them so sought after for corporate head-hunters is the expertise they have gleaned in the corridors of power under successive administrations.

Increasingly, however, this trend is now posing serious ethical questions about the use of insider knowledge for profit, especially at a time when lucrative public-private partnerships are in the pipeline. These massive joint ventures are destined to play a major role in creating the infrastructure projects of the future, involving tens of billions of euros.

Because of the high stakes involved, recruitment firms are aggressively seeking senior civil servants. The exodus of Revenue officials into the tax consultancy field is already well established.

While there is no suggestion of any wrong-doing on the part of officials who move from the public to the private sector, the potential for exploiting the highly sensitive information at their command is ever increasing as vast projects are assembled.

As things stand in this country, only informal guidelines cover the potential conflicting between the public and private interests.

Undeniably, there is an urgent need for formal codes of conduct to cover this area. Such a charter would, for instance, include a cooling-off period when vital information could not be exploited for commercial gain.

In an infamous case, a German EU commissioner quit his job to join the Spanish telecommunications giant, Telfonica.

To prevent this kind of thing happening, Britain has imposed a two-year freeze during which an official must seek the approval of an independent advisory committee before taking up a paid post in business. Other countries, such as the US, operate a similar moratorium.

Because of the growing potential for such conflicts of interest to arise here, concern has properly been raised by SIPTU, the country’s biggest union, over civil servants taking early retirement and moving to the industrial and business sectors.

To guard against abuse, a code of conduct specifically designed to stop officials from using insider knowledge for the benefit of their new employers should be drawn up as a matter of urgency.

Already, we have witnessed the introduction of a series of measures aimed at cleaning up the political arena. As well as compelling TDs to disclose their interests, an ethical code of conduct for TDs is now in place. The funding of political parties is also becoming more transparent.

There is a compelling case for expanding the remit of the Standards in Public Offices Commission should to cover the civil service.

Indeed, the Public Accounts Committee has already raised serious questions about the flow of officials from the Revenue Commissioners to the more lucrative fields of tax consultancy.

In today’s world, knowledge is not only power, it is also very valuable. The Government should not hesitate to complete its ethical agenda to ensure that commercially sensitive knowledge is not exploited.