Making power truthful, and truth powerful – an Open Government message at Bali

8 May 2014

Perhaps indicative of the enthusiasm of participating countries, the highlight of the Open Government Partnership regional meeting in Bali this week appears to have been an address by Aruna Roy.  Or perhaps it was President Bambang Yudhoyono using the occasion for the inaugural flight of the Indonesian military’s “Airforce One”.  It was clearly not a high spot of Australian diplomatic endeavour, with the absence of any Ministers being available to pour oil on the troubled waters between it and  its northern neighbour.

New Zealand was represented by the Minister of Internal Affairs.  Despite our reluctant commitment to OGP obligations, the numerous examples of good government in New Zealand provided a comprehensive list of achievements for the Minister to refer to in his speech, although an extension in developing the prerequisite OGP Action Plan  has been necessary. He was able to highlight measures already underway independently of the OGP like the 2011 Declaration of Open and Transparent Government, the ICT Strategic Action Plan, the Better Public Services programme and examples of government use of technology to transform citizen engagement. High rankings in surveys published by the Open Data Institute and Transparency international anchor New Zealand’s credibility in Open Government circles.

The New Zealand chapter of Transparency International which is the lead civil society partner in developing the OGP Action Plan – and is also represented in Bali – is not quite as fulsome in its latest newsletter. The fundamental concern is that Action Plan proposals echo the sorts of activities which the Minister listed in his speech rather than embodying the spirit of the OGP which is about novel and ambitious commitments ( although the options of building on existing efforts or taking new steps to complete on-going reforms are acceptable.)

Aruna Roy apparently hit the right emotional spot at the end of her presentation by reciting what has become her mantra, lifted from Jeremy Cronin’ s definition of democracy – that Open government is about making power truthful, and truth powerful.

www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/speech-day-two-legislative-openness-working-group-indonesia

www.opengovpartnership.org/blog/michael-canares/2014/05/06/pushing-boundaries-open-governance-insights-ogp-asia-pacific

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May 8, 2014

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New Zealand press among the most free – with periodic blunders

6 May 2014

The comparatively tame “assault” upon the affairs of a journalist by the Minister of Justice is possibly as serious as limitations get, on the freedom of the New Zealand media. Ironically, however, the incident occurred while much of the World was celebrating World Press Freedom Day.

Since 1993 the UN General Assembly has encouraged recognition of 3 May as World Press Freedom Day, reminding people of the fundamental principles of press freedom and the challenges that journalists often face in reporting public affairs.   Reporters without Borders also marks the date with the release of its annual World Press Freedom Index to heighten awareness of the dangers faced by journalists in many places, and commemorates those killed while seeking to practise their profession.

New Zealand – and Andorra – rank among Scandinavian countries in the top ten of the countries on the World Press Freedom Index. New Zealand slipped to 9th place in this year’s Index of 180 countries, from 8th in 2013.

Australia, UK and the US don’t rate as well.  Samoa is among the countries that had the most substantial improvement in ranking this year, moving up 8 places to 40th on the World Press Freedom Index.

The White House Correspondents’ annual dinner also celebrates World Press Freedom Day – this year President Obama’s address has been a You Tube hit.

 

Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Index 2014

1 Finland
2 Netherlands
3 Norway
4 Luxembourg
5 Andorra
6 Liechtenstein
7 Denmark
8 Iceland
9 New Zealand
10 Sweden
   
28 Australia
33 United Kingdom
40 Samoa
46 United States
   

 

http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2014/05/collins-media-comments-highlight-nz-press-freedom-issues/

http://rsf.org/index2014/en-index2014.php

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaRC2oQACg0

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May 6, 2014

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Loss of public respect for politicians goes against trend for other occupations

5 May 2014

 

Political ructions in both New Zealand and Australia over the last few weeks as Ministers have been acting inappropriately, may be seen as reinforcing perceptions that many people have about the trustworthiness of politicians. Public opinion surveys always rate politicians poorly. Although the apparent closeness of two New Zealand Ministers to Chinese business interests has captured media attention, those circumstances appear much less damning than incidents with New South Wales politicians. First the Premier resigned, then the Minister of Police, and evidence of impropriety about others is being considered by the Independent  Commission Against Corruption.

The annual UMR New Zealand Mood of the Nation Survey, last published in January, includes results of a poll of confidence in institutions. This continues to show that New Zealanders have less confidence in Parliament than any of the other institutions. The poll, conducted in August 2013, shows 20% had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Parliament (and that had dropped from 29%, the highest in 12 years, only 15 months previously). By comparison, 35% had a great deal or a lot of confidence in the Public Service, and 47% responded that way about the military. Conforming to previous years, New Zealanders have more confidence in general practitioners as an institution (with 66% showing a great deal or a lot) followed by the Police (at 59%).

The ratings of occupations place politicians as the least respected at 4.5  (alongside real estate agents) while nurses rated highest at 8.8. Police were at 7.9 and Public servants at 6.5.  Politicians were the only occupation for whom respect diminished from the poll results the previous year.

This may reflect trends elsewhere.

Results of a United States poll published last week by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University show that the millennial generation is cynical about the political process and is increasingly distrustful of government institutions.

About 58% think politicians don’t share their priorities, and 62% felt politicians were motivated by selfish reasons.

This loss 0f trust among 19 – 29 year olds is more general in effect. Their trust in American institutions, such as the President, the military, and the Supreme Court, has also declined over the past year. In 2013, for example, 54% said they trusted the US military to do the right thing all or most of the time. That number dropped to 47 % in the new poll.

 

www.umr.co.nz/updates/mood-nation-2014

www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/02/icac-police-minister-mike-gallacher-hatched-corrupt-scheme

www.businessinsider.com.au/poll-millenials-have-historically-low-levels-of-trust-in-government-2014-4

 

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May 5, 2014

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Release date for State Services integrity survey slipped – have the standards slipped also?

29 April 2014

The State Services Commission has pushed out the date for releasing the findings of the integrity survey conducted among 15,000 State servants in late 2013.  The SSC website reports that the results will be now be published in May, having first been scheduled for January and then in April..   The findings will build on the information collated from State Services integrity surveys conducted in 2007 and 2010.

For those surveys SSC was licensed to use the question set developed by the Ethics Resource Centre for the US National Business Ethics Survey (and the National Government Ethics Survey). As the 2013 State Services survey had a changed questionnaire, it may be a challenge to identify and validate trends from the survey response data. However the New Zealand results in general, have been a  favourable reflection of the National Business Ethics survey results  – so what is looking good in the US may be similarly experienced in New Zealand.

The results of the 2013 National Business Ethics survey involving almost 6500 US respondents (from the 34,000 employees polled) were a mixed bag, as has been the case in all previous surveys.  The good news is that observed misconduct in the workplace is the lowest ever recorded. Whereas 55% of US employers observed ethical misconduct at work in 2007, this trended down to 45% in the 2011 survey and in the 2013 survey “only” 41% of respondents reported seeing misconduct.

There was a strengthening in companies’ ethical culture, rising to 66% from 60% in 2011. This cultural improvement may be explained by companies placing greater emphasis on ethical behaviour through training and communications.  81% of respondents indicated that their company provided ethics training, up from 74% in 2011.

Impressively, 66% of companies included ethical conduct as an aspect of performance appraisals, and informed staff of disciplinary action taken when misconduct was uncovered.   Contrastingly, 26% of respondents saw misconduct as an ongoing issue, rather than one-off incidents, and nearly a quarter of which were committed by managers.

There was also a 2% drop over the last two years – to 9% – of employees reporting pressure to compromise their company standards. There was a similar 2% drop in the number of employees (63%) who felt able to report misconduct. Connected to that experience is the 20% of staff reporting misconduct who said they experienced retaliation in some form as a consequence.

The ERC notes that “… High retaliation rates discourage reporting and make it harder for organisations to identify and eliminate bad behaviour. These numbers need to change for real ethical progress to occur. Good ethics is good business.  Shareholders and the public-at-large deserve credible reform, which can only come when corporate leadership builds an engaged culture committed to integrity…”

The NBES results confirm the importance for all agencies of ensuring that the “6 trust elements” are ingrained into their organisational culture – that agencies

  • Have standards
  • Promote those standards
  • Integrate those standards into the way the agency works
  • Managers model the standards
  • Decisive action is taken when breaches occur
  • Staff know the consequences of misconduct.

 

www.ssc.govt.nz/integrity-and-conduct-survey-2013

www.ethics.org/downloads/2013NBESFinalWeb.pd

www.ssc.govt.nz/node/5390

 

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April 29, 2014

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By reneging on Open Government Partnership Australia makes New Zealand look good

28 April 2014

Both New Zealand and Australia were slow off the mark in committing to the Open Government partnership.  But while a working group in New Zealand is supporting efforts to get some sort of head of steam in place for the early May OGP regional conference in Indonesia, the Australian Government appears to have gone cold on OGP membership and the requirement to develop and implement an action plan.

On the day the Australian Finance Minister indicated that Australia would delay any commitment, the French Minister of the Reform of the State and of Decentralisation  announced that France would  join the Open Government Partnership “with great determination”.

Ireland, also joining the OGP this year, has demonstrated its enthusiasm for the movement by hosting the European regional meeting next month.

Although the previous Australian administration seemed willing when “invited“ by the United States to seek membership of the OGP, at no stage has any enthusiasm been evident among ministers in the Abbott Government.  “The Australian” has reported that it has been refused access to correspondence between Ministers about the OGP because “the government has yet to reach a final policy position on these matters’’.  The feel good factor of participation appears to have been outweighed by the implications of being held to account to an international NGO for an action plan which though attractive to civil society, may be better managed with flexibility to reflect other government priorities.

After a year of contemplating the OGP obligations, the Australia Government appears unwilling to sign up to an action plan – which for the 4th cohort of OGP members was anticipated this month.  New Zealand, also in the 4th cohort, is planning to have something in the way of an action plan to proffer at the Asian regional meeting in May.

By contrast, France will be in the fifth cohort and expected to submit a draft action plan by April 2015. However France not only has declared an intention to join, but to…”to contribute…with full commitment and by engaging in a fruitful dialogue with its partners…”  The Minister has indicated that the French draft action plan will be published later this year – six months ahead of the OGP requirement.

The media statement about the French intentions indicates that it will be the 64th OGP member state – overlooking action by Russia to rescind its membership and the ambiguity of Australia’s status.

Those second-thoughts are not shared by France which enthusiastically declared that “…What’s at stake is innovation and building the public action of tomorrow. It’s not only about being accountable, it is also about deeply renewing the way we design, drive and assess public action.

 

www.freedominfo.org/2014/04/australia-reconsidering-ogp-membership-paper-reports/

www.opengovpartnership.org/blog/blog-editor/2014/04/24/france-becomes-64th-country-join-open-government-partnership

www.per.gov.ie/ireland-to-host-open-government-partnership-ogp-europe-regional-meeting-in-2014/

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April 27, 2014

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The fight for today’s generation is against corruption

25 April 2014

New Zealand institutions are unlikely to be substantively different from the average equivalent within the European Union. The first integrity report on EU institutions published yesterday by Transparency International identified a vulnerability to corruption. Loopholes and poor enforcement of rules on ethics, transparency and financial control are equally likely to present vulnerabilities in New Zealand.

The Eurobarometer published in February shows that 70% of Europeans believe their institutions are affected by corruption. This perception persists despite obligations the EU, OECD and the UN impose through standards, the Anti Bribery Convention and UNCAC.

Transparency International acknowledged that a range of rules and practices supported high standards of public service and accountability but that the complexity of rules, complacency and a lack of follow up had an undermining effect.  Concerns about the absence of mandatory controls on lobbying and poor enforcement of ethical standards are  just as real in New Zealand.

“If the EU leadership is serious about arresting the decline in trust and confidence, corruption risks need to be dealt with before they become corruption scandals.”

To safeguard the public interest Transparency International  recommends that institutions must;

  • promote a policy of ‘transparency by default’ in EU decision-making and to  resolve the conflicts of interest of  EU decision-makers
  • create a culture of openness by putting in place effective internal whistle-blowing procedures at all institutions.
  • set up a European Public Prosecutor with broad powers to tackle cross-border corruption.

There needs to be a further focus on  genuinely open and ethical governance, to close identified integrity gaps .

 

www.transparencyinternational.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/EUIS_press_release.pdf

http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_397_en.pdf

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April 25, 2014

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Fighting corruption enables purge of President Xi’s opponents

24 April 2014

 

New Zealand has obligations through its APEC membership to implement anti corruption measures in both public and private sectors. It is hard to discern any official commitment to promoting awareness of either the APEC Conduct Principles for Public Officials or the parallel Code of Conduct for Business.  These measures, developed in the 2007-08 period, consequent on Australian and  United States lobbying, appear to have run  out of steam even among the South East Asian states which initially showed a formal willingness.

But the United States apparently wants to rekindle interest.  At the Senior Officials Meeting in Ningbo (China)  earlier this year  the  United States reiterated its enthusiasm for integrity in business and government.  It restated that anti corruption is one of its key priorities and that there is a need for the APEC economies to take more action to fight corruption, bribery, and money laundering. “… So we hope this year to be able to make this a very important area within APEC and work with the Chinese, work with all the other economies, to highlight the issue and the problems of corruption and bribery and to try to come together with a statement of principles and commitments on how we can fight against bribery as a whole…”

That seems to play to the hand of the Chinese President.   Reuters has reported how he plans an anti corruption purge which will enable him to replace senior officials across government with a younger cadre more sympathetic to his policies.

Under the banner of fighting corruption he will remove both the blatantly corrupt and those resisting change so that he can consolidate his position and push through difficult economic, judicial and military reforms on which continued Communist Party rule depends.

“The anti-corruption drive is a means to an end. The goal is to promote his own men and like-minded officials to key positions to push through reforms,” according to Reuter‘s sources.

A notable tactic has been to put a loyal civilian into uniform and into a controlling role in the General Office of the Central Military Commission which oversees the armed forces.

Like his predecessor, the President has warned that corruption threatens the Party’s survival. Not that officials have been discouraged. A 2013 inquiry apparently found that more than 30 percent of leaders in the party, government and the armed forces were involved in some form of corruption. “…The government would be paralyzed if Xi went after all the corrupt officials.”

So China can project a commitment to UNCAC and APEC anti corruption responsibilities but the President will have to show caution to avoid upsetting too many interests that could coalesce to destabilise his position.

 

www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/17/us-china-corruption-xi-insight-idUSBREA3F1UT20140417

www.devex.com/projects/tenders/consulting-services-for-the-implementation-of-the-code-of-conduct-for-business-pathfinder-project-in-apec-member-economies/19162

 

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April 24, 2014

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Culture of integrity – the real thing

23 April 2014

The Director of the Institute of Business Ethics (UK) is currently in New Zealand on what has become an annual visit to the local membership of the Institute. She is also sharing the IBE’s wisdom with other interested organisations.  Since 1986 the IBE has advocated the commercial importance to businesses of instilling a values based culture among their boards, managers and staff.  IBE has a portfolio of ethics resources and training materials and reports of a growing stable of ethics surveys – much available on its website. Surveys on Ethics Surveys 2013 reviews nine highly regarded research projects carried out last year – which are remarkably consistent in their findings – giving readers the benefit of the collated conclusions.

The challenge for any organisation inculcating integrity among its workforce is the small percentage who seem motivated only by self interest.  A meeting with corporate lawyers yesterday was told by the IBE Director that this could number as high as 2% or 3%.

And the problem occurs at all layers of business as was illustrated last week with the fraud convictions of two directors of the Anglo Irish Bank. A three month trial in Dublin had considered a 2008 scheme by which 450 million euros was given in loans to property developers, already deep in debt to the bank, to manipulate the market by buying Anglo Irish shares which were fast losing value as the financial crisis started to tame the celtic tiger.

Deloitte recently published guidance which refers to the tangible elements of creating a culture of integrity, beginning with tone at the top, including the mood in the middle and the buzz at the bottom (an expression used also this month in a FCPA Compliance and Ethics blog entry about the problem GM faces with massive vehicle recalls to remedy faults caused by petty cost saving on an essential part.)

“Culture is what people see as recognised and rewarded. For employees, the face of culture might be their supervisor. The voices of culture are the legendary stories told throughout an organisation that reinforce the fundamental values that it stands for. As important and essential as compliance is, in the struggle between culture and compliance, culture always wins. That’s how powerful it is….. if companies aren’t managing culture, culture is managing them. Organisations can protect themselves by communicating their values on a consistent basis. Unfortunately …. management and boards tend to under communicate values by a factor of 10…”

A culture of integrity is the real oil – although today’s date perhaps suggests another “real thing”.  This is the anniversary of the 1985 launch of “new Coke”, so negatively received that it was withdrawn within 3 months.

 

www.ibe.org.uk/frequently-asked-questions/3#faq275

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/anglo-irish-bank-executives-convicted-fraud-23361402

http://deloitte.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2014/04/22/keith-darcy-how-boards-can-raise-the-bar-on-ethics-and-compliance/

https://tfoxlaw.wordpress.com/category/fcpa/tone-at-the-top/

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April 23, 2014

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New South Wales Premier has feet of clay after all

16 April 2014

Politicians always rate poorly in surveys of trust and confidence. The perception is of subordinating public service to self interest, of putting reelection above the idealism that first motivated a career in politics. There is a tolerance for business being self-interested while doing work that promotes society as a whole, but not for politicians.  The 2014 Edelman Trust barometer published in January indicated that public confidence in business was higher in 27 countries surveyed, than confidence in government.  In the US the difference was as bad as it had ever been.

Australian state politics is seldom well regarded.  Last year only 3% of Australians said that had “a lot of trust” in political parties.   Yesterday, the gloss seemed to come off the New South Wales Premier.  He came to power promising trustworthy government.  In opposition he had been unceasing in his condemnation of corrupt practices of the State’s then Labor government.  He championed the work of the Independent Commission against Corruption.  But this week evidence he gave to ICAC was established as untrue. The Premier described it as a significant memory failure.

His immediate resignation in the face ICAC disclosing a note from him, thanking a business connection currently the subject of ICAC interest,  for support and the gift of a $3000 bottle of wine, was described by the Australian Prime Minister as  “utterly honourable.” “This is honour and integrity…the like of which we have rarely seen in Australian politics…”

The Prime Minister spoke of his “enormous respect and admiration” for the Premier although the incident seems to have taken media attention away from the announcement of government support for the construction of a second Sydney airport

The Premier claimed that he had innocently and inadvertently misled ICAC, that he had no recollection of receiving the wine or of writing the thank you note. He had no intention to deceive. Bob Carr, a former NSW Premier has described “a debauched ethos of mate ship” among the State’s politicians.

The New Zealand Readers Digest 2013 survey of trust in 50 occupations ranked politicians in 46th place, ahead only of sex workers, car salesmen, door to door salespeople and telemarketers.

 

http://www.edelman.com/p/6-a-m/2014-edelman-trust-barometer/

www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/trust-in-the-nations-government-and-politicans-has-fallen-to-record-lows-study-finds-20131020-2vutg.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-16/nsw-premier-barry-ofarrell-to-resign-over-icac-grange-wine/5393478

www.readersdigest.co.nz/most-trusted-professions-2013

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April 17, 2014

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Global Drug Survey shows high user rate in NZ

16 April 2014

A good proportion of New Zealanders apparently have a drug of choice. This was indicated by responses to the 10th Annual Global Drug Survey, results of which were published yesterday. That is an explanation for the 19% increase in the number of on-site workplace drug tests reported by the New Zealand Drug Detection Agency, up from 68,346 urine tests in 2012 to 81,410 last year. A number of these were in State sector agencies which of course have the same obligations to ensure safe workplaces as any other employer.

The good news is that the 5.5% testing non-negative – an indication that presence of a drug is detected – was down from 6.4% in 2012.  Over 71% of non-negative results indicated use of cannabis.

New Zealand participates each year in the Global Drug Survey, along with USA, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Ireland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Mexico, Slovenia and Brazil. The latest survey of drug users (conducted during November / December 2013) was the biggest ever.  It received almost 80,000 responses.

A conclusion is that a reduction in criminal penalties is unlikely to encourage non users to try drugs or for current users to increase their use. What would be likely is that drug users would be more open with their family and friends about their habits and the consequences.

A typical respondent was between 20 and 40, well-educated, and socially active. That could describe many State servants.  A common characteristic was that they were more likely to have used drugs at some stage than the general population but in the last year only around 60% had used an illicit drug – usually cannabis.

Generally, alcohol, tobacco and cannabis were the most common drugs used within the last year, with cocaine, amphetamine in its various forms and MDMA frequently just behind them, but there were some quite marked national variations.

New Zealanders, along with users in USA had a particular preference for meth – and “prescribed and non-prescribed psychoactive medication particular opioid painkillers and benzodiazepines”.

A study of over 38,000 cannabis users showed that “only” 25% of New Zealanders chose to smoke cannabis with tobacco  compared to over 80% of smokers in most other countries – excepting the USA which had a lower rate than New Zealand.

The researchers were surprised that more New Zealanders  (one in 30 of last year’s users) sought emergency medical attention after using synthetic cannabis products despite the products being regulated and apparently “safe”.   The survey suggests that regulation does not necessarily reduce drug related harm.

A consolation is that New Zealand had the lowest rate (at fewer than 8%) of  people at work  showing the effects of drugs, unlike the Netherlands (25%) and the UK and Ireland (both over 20%). More hung over Irish turned up for work (50%) than elsewhere.

If a rise of electronic THC product use is excluded, the biggest drug users among the 17 countries surveyed were in the USA, UK and New Zealand.

The closest that any State Services Commission guidance gets to referring to the use of drugs is the 18th and ultimate standard in the code of conduct  that “We must avoid any activities, work or non-work, that may harm the reputation of our organisation or of the State Services”.

In Understanding the Code of Conduct – Guidance for State Servants   the explanation is of a duty to avoid being connected publicly with behaviour that creates a sense of public disquiet, and that, implicitly, diminishes trust in the State Services. “Involvement in some personal activities, including unlawful behaviour… is likely to bring our organisation into disrepute.”

State servants are counselled that … “when considering whether an activity may be harmful and therefore unacceptable, our immediate feelings can often be a useful guide. What is your conscience telling you? Another test of appropriateness may be the opinions of colleagues following discussion of all the facts, in effect a collective conscience. A reluctance to openly discuss an activity may reflect our innate awareness that the activity is not acceptable.”

 

www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1403/S00150/on-site-workplace-drug-screening-increases-19-in-2013.htm

www.ssc.govt.nz/bps-celebrating-success-reducing-meth-use

www.globaldrugsurvey.com/facts-figures/the-global-drug-survey-2014-findings/

www.ssc.govt.nz/node/1915

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April 16, 2014

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