THE GOVERNMENT has failed for seven years to create legal codes of conduct for senior officials in State agencies and should delay “no further”, the Standards in Public Office Commission has declared. The ethics body, which produced its annual report yesterday, said it had long highlighted concerns about the lack of a statutory code for directors and employees of State agencies.
“The absence of such a code could lead to serious difficulties in the event of a complaint against an employee or a director of a State agency under the Standards in Public Office Act 2000,” it declared.
Standards in State agencies have been “the subject of much public comment in the recent past”, while allegations of impropriety have been made. “Rightly, there is public expectation that high standards be demonstrated by all public servants in the exercise of their functions and in the use of public resources,” it said.
The commission, headed by Mr Justice Mathew P Smith, said it had urged the Minister for Finance to act “as a matter of urgency”, but nothing happened.
“Existing safeguards are not enough,” it said. “It is in the public interest that there is no further delay in introducing these statutory codes.” The Department of Finance is working on revising the existing administrative rules, but “it has not sought any observations on the code” from it, the commission complained.
The commission received 38 complaints last year: 18 of these were invalid, partly because people are unsure who complaints should best be made against.
The body said it regretted the decision by TDs and Senators not to accept barcoding of Oireachtas envelopes to prevent improper use. For years, there have been complaints the State-paid envelopes were passed on by Oireachtas members to councillors, which they should not be.
TDs accepted barcoding, but changed their minds after opposition from Senators, most of whom are elected by councillors. This meant “that there can be no assurance that €2.7 million of public resources” were being properly used, the commission said.
Meanwhile, it said the €200,000 loan by businessman Declan Ganley would “seem to indicate that it is a bona fide loan”. Libertas, it said, provided a copy of the loan agreement and confirmed it did not receive any other loans.
The Lisbon referendum last year highlighted “significant weaknesses” in the laws governing the activities of third-party organisations in such campaigns. Groups that spend €5,000 on a campaign should be “required to show how their campaign” was funded, while limits on the type and amount of donations would apply. The commission welcomed the Government’s intention to stiffen rules governing the involvement of such organisations in referendums.