Government, ethics and managers

Unethical practices in the public sector have been with us since the first colonists arrived in America. Since then, no period in U.S. history has been without its own kind of fraud, waste, and abuse by the public officials appointed by the Crown, by the political party in power, or by the acts and misdeeds of elected or career public servants. It's as if the American symbols of mom and apple pie share center stage with unethical practices.

Changing times bring changes in unethical practices and, to some extent, a change in their focus. Although common threads such as political spoils, political influence, and insider infor mation about procurements continue to poison the practice of government, changes in public perception about politicians of any persuasion have led to a narrowing of the opportunities and incentives for unethical practices. The problem of unethical prac tices in the public sector persists, however, and will continue as long as government leaders continue to tolerate and, even worse, contribute to the problem.

The fact that government leaders continue to contribute to the problem is the primary motivation for this book. There's a lot of funny stuff going on out there, and it's been going on for a long time. In fact, the genesis of this book was a series of regional training workshops on maintaining municipal integrity in which we were involved more than a decade ago. The series, sponsored by the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, was pre sented across the country to some 1,000 police chiefs, district attorneys, city managers, county executive and other public policy executives and decisionmakers. The basic ethical concepts and management practices reviewed and discussed in the work shop series have been expanded upon and included here to reflect current ethical dilemmas facing the people who work for us and are paid by tax dollars. We acknowledge that the vast majority are honest and earn their salaries. We also acknowledge that there's still a lot of funny stuff going on that can be detected and prevented a lot earlier than it is. We further acknowledge that there are in place many laws, administrative procedures, and other checks and balances that, if followed and applied. regularly, could prevent most unethical practices.