Public administration is about doing the people’s business. It is for this reason that we tend to hold public servants to very high standards when it comes to both their personal conduct and official actions. In the field of public administration, the American Society for Public Administrators (ASPA) has a Code of Ethics, as does the International City Manager’s Association (ICMA). These codes of ethics help to guide the actions of those working in the field.
Identify a current event in which a public servant’s actions conflicted with their ethical obligations. In your response, do the following:
- Describe the current event.
- Explain the duties of the public servant.
- Explain what the public servant did that was ethically questionable.
- Apply the ASPA’s Code of Ethics or the Code of Ethics for the ICMA to the individual’s case and analyze what parts of the Code of Ethics were violated.
- Lastly, what should the public servant have done to better serve the public’s interest?
