Mains Daily Question
Jan. 31, 2020
Q. Civil Servant occupy important position in the government in terms of dealing with large amount of public funds and their decisions have wide repercussions. Thus there is a need for creating ethical competent Civil Servants. In this light, suggest ways to promote ethical competence among Civil Servants.
Structure of the answer:
- Introduction
- Justifying the statement
- Steps to improve ethical competence among civil servant
- Conclusion
With great power comes great responsibility. Civil servants have to ensure proper utilisation, appropriation and allocation of funds. The decisions undertaken by the Civil Servant impact large number of individuals and society as a whole. Moreover, it also has an impact on surrounding environment if values of trusteeship and stewardship are ignored. For ex.- decision to give permission to polluting industry by largely ignoring Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
Thus, considering large impact of their action, it is necessary to lay a strong foundation of ethical values amongst Civil Servants. Some of the suggested ways to improve ethical competence are as follows:
- Civil Servant needs to take pride in integrity/ procedural integrity. This will help in valuing taxpayer’s hard earned money and ensure proper utilisation of funds.
- There is need to create a sense of responsibility amongst Civil Servant, wherein they understand that power is not a privilege and need to keep away from usurpation of power.
- There is also a need to promote values learned from the lives of great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa
- Civil Servant also needs to follow the principle of sustainable development and trusteeship so as to help India achieve ‘common future’ or ‘sustainable future’ targets.
- The techniques of attitude and behavioural change like cognitive appeal, emotional appeal needs to be adopted.
- Further, serving Civil Servant need to advised to practice code of ethics and code of conduct.
Thus, adopting the above methods in letter and spirit will ensure creating a strong foundation of ethically competent Civil Servant, which is a condition precedent for achieving $5 trillion economy status.