Survey shows misconduct in government
A major ethics scandal may soon unfold in the public sector unless government agencies, particularly local and state governments, institute strong ethics programs, according to the Arlington, Va.-based Ethics Resource Center’s (ERC) National Government Ethics Survey released in January.
Almost one-quarter of the public sector employees responding to the survey said there is a great deal of pressure to compromise standards in their work environments. About 63 percent of the local government employees in the survey said they had observed at least one type of misconduct in the previous year. While federal employees reported less inclination toward misconduct on their jobs, 86 percent of state and local government employees reported a lack of a strong ethics program in their workplaces, while only 7 percent of state employees and 9 percent of local government employees said they see a truly ethical culture on the job. The report is available at www.ethics.org/download.asp?fid=103.