Course Description

In today’s environment of rapid change and uncertainties, issues of ethics, integrity and Accountability in the public sector are growingly becoming critical. In fact, there is a pressing demand for deeper levels of ethical intelligence and higher standards of public accountability all over the world. The same demand is especially necessitated by uncertain nature of current global and national dynamics that challenges the legitimacy of our public institutions whose integrity is getting undermined by scarce resources and new patterns of corruption and patronage. This course focuses on helping students to understand ethical responsibility and get prepared to diligently work in the public service sector with a set of insights, concepts, skills and tools. The course will address the conceptualization, relevance and enforceability of ethics, accountability and transparency in the governance process. It is designed to uncover the concerns and issues of the public sector ethics and analyze ethical challenges facing public servants. The course covers the basic principles of public sector ethics, and accountability. In class sessions we shall study how public servants are supposed to conduct themselves in delivery of public service. We will particularly examine civil servants’ actions grounded in the administration of public affairs. We will then review some basic principles behind public service ethics and analyze their application.  Students are expected to clearly understand what is required of public employees in terms of ethical conduct and standards of performance acceptable in the Public Service. Besides understanding the standard of behaviour, the course also aims to discuss issues that hinder ethical performance.