Aspect 5 - Standards of Conduct

The openness, integrity and accountability of individuals within a Department is the cornerstone of effective corporate governance. The reputation of the Department depends on the standards of behaviour of everyone in it, including agents contracted to it.

Therefore the Minister, Members, and senior officers of a Department will need to:

exercise leadership by conducting themselves as role models for others within the Department to follow;
ensure compliance with relevant professional and corporate standards of personal behaviour and codes of ethics;

To meet these principles, Departments need to:

put in place arrangements to ensure :
1. accountability and effectiveness through establishing and monitoring systems for discipline and grievance;
2. that objectivity and impartiality are maintained in all relationships to demonstrate integrity;
3. that agreed complaints procedures are fully complied with.
comply with the formal codes of conduct defining the standards of personal behaviour to which individual Members, officers and agents of the Department should be required to subscribe and put in place arrangements to ensure that they are complied with in practice;
put in place arrangements to ensure that Members and all staff of the Department are not influenced by prejudice, bias, or conflicts of interest in dealing with different interested parties and ensure that these arrangements continue to operate in practice;
put in place arrangements to ensure that their procedures and operations are designed and monitored in conformity with
1. prescribed Government Policy;
2. the general framework of financial regulations;
3. any relevant legislative requirements, and - appropriate ethical standards.

The following documents support the Corporate Governance aspect of Standards of Conduct:

Downloadable Documents