Ethics and Accountability in Public Service

Ethics, Integrity and Accountability in Public Sector: Practice and Lessons Learned in Latvia Aleksejs Loskutovs, Director Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau Latvia 28 September 2006 (10 min.) The public sector in Latvia has undergone many important changes over the past decade. In mid 1990s Latvian government started a major public administration reform. This reform was one of the cornerstones on Latvia’s way to the European Union, which we joined in May 2004. Latvia made a great effort to develop legal framework that regulates the public sector, as well as relations between the public sector and the citizens. Today legislation in Latvia and internal regulations of different public institutions in various ways cover the principles of ethics, integrity and accountably. Formally, the reform created a basis for a modern public sector, based on general European and international standards. The competence of public institutions is clearly limited in the law, each institution has to have objectives and is judged by its results, there are mechanisms to inform the public and involve the citizens. The administration and the politics are separated. Civil servants have to be politically neutral. According to our public administration reform concept developed in 1995, public servants also have to respect the principle of ethics – it is defined in this concept as public interest standing beyond any personal interest. Many positive initiatives have been developed to ensure the accountability of the public sector. The parliament has an important role to control the work of the government and through it – the public sector as a whole. In fact, the parliament in Latvia is not using these powers enough. Public institutions have to develop work plans and through public consultative bodies the public and professionals can participate in the decision of public institutions. Annual reports have become obligatory. Latvia is also one of the rare countries in the world were the