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CONCLUSIONS

There have been both positive and negative developments in the activities of agencies around the Values that impact on personal behaviour in 2003—04. On the positive side high and increasing proportions of APS employees report being familiar with the APS Code of Conduct and continue to see the Code as relevant to their daily work. The APS Commission’s evaluation of how agencies manage suspected breaches of the Code of Conduct concluded that all of the six agencies participating in the evaluation took misconduct seriously and that generally cases were managed in a manner consistent with the requirements of the PS Act and Regulations. However, there is room for improvement in agencies’ processes and a detailed good practice guide will be released in 2005. The evaluation also identified some policy concerns about whistleblower arrangements which the APS Commission needs to follow through.

One of the findings of the evaluation that was reinforced by the results of this year’s employee survey was the reluctance of a minority of staff to report serious misconduct, particularly if the suspected perpetrator is a more senior employee. It is of concern that half of the 11% of employees who reported observing a serious breach of the Code did not report it. The finding of the evaluation, that it was observable that those agencies that made significant investments in awareness raising on the importance of the Values and Code of Conduct to their business generally performed better in relation to indicators of staff willingness to report misconduct compared to agencies with lower levels of investment, should provide an impetus to agencies to increase their level of investment.

There were a couple of positive developments in agencies’ management of conflict of interest, with the proportion of agencies having policies on post-separation employment increasing from 30% to 44% and the proportion of agencies fulfilling the requirement for their SES employees to make a written statement of their interests increasing modestly from 75% to 80%. In both of these areas there continues to be room for improvement, however, and those agencies not requiring a written statement from SES employees should take action as a matter of priority. It is also important that portfolio secretaries ensure that new agency heads in their portfolio receive appropriate induction support, including clarification of their obligations under the PS Act including the obligation to uphold and promote the APS Values and comply with the Code of Conduct. It was disappointing to note the fall in the proportion of agencies having contractual provisions to restrict the employment of key participants in the tender process by successful tenderers.