Newcomers should seek the counsel of their agencies ethics officials, chief financial officer, inspector general and others. While this may seem obvious, one agency-level ethics counselor told me he was not allowed even to brief his secretary, who subsequently got into ethics problems. To shed further light on the subject, Raymon Bruce and I analyzed more than 100 news articles from all over the country on ethical dilemmas and breaches that involved public servants, and we developed more than 30 representative examples to drive the message home as to what happened and what were the costs. From the examples, it was easy to identify 10 strategies to avoid the pitfalls. In short, the strategies rely upon the precepts that all actions taken by public servants must avoid the appearance of impropriety and conflict of interest, and that they be taken with an expectation that their circumstances be fully and truthfully disclosed.
Public service is many things a privilege, an opportunity, a challenge and more.
It is, however, not something to be taken lightly or for granted. Inadvertent missteps and the subsequent damage control are a terrible waste of time, energy, resources and political capital. Commentary Copyright 2000 Federal Times.