HPAS/Allied Mains 2022 Answer Writing Challenge Day 83 : Model Answer

Question: Corruption is related with the compromised integrity and conflict of interest. In this regard discuss the role of integrity in civil services? (20)

Answer:

Integrity means the ability of an individual to remain consistent and committed to his/her personal and professional values. It means that one adheres to ethical and moral values, code of conduct and code of ethics. It is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.

Integrity includes:

6. Soundness of moral principles.
7. Uprightness.
8. Honesty and sincerity.
9. Synchronisation between one’s thought, speech and action.
10. Loyalty to rational principles

Immense Powers and responsibilities of civil servants:

• In India’s democracy, the ultimate responsibility for running the administration rests with the civil servants. They are expected to deal personally with the manifold problems of modern administration.
• Civil servants are empowered with security of tenure and provided with powers of decision making for community welfare.
• They have powers to make important appointments and maintain law and order at local level.
• They have power to implement policies at ground level for welfare of the people.
• They are provided with powers to monitor financial resources wrt monitoring and implementing policies on the ground.
• Among the members of the civil services are administrators in the central government and state government, emissaries in the foreign missions/embassies, tax collectors and revenue commissioners etc. with immense powers.
• Civil servants are the actual makers of Indian law and policy. They work on behalf of the elected government. It is mandatory for them to form certain rules and policies according to the government’s views and interests.
• They cannot be removed by any state or central government, but can only be retired.

Importance of integrity in civil service

• Integrity is the fundamental moral concept in civil services. It is an important basis of ethical behaviour and ethical competency.
• With such immense powers it often leads to conflict of interest between personal gains and benefits.
• Often with power of financial resources, low integrity lead to corruption.
• It is associated with the value of being honest and maintain strong moral principles.
• Integrity includes financial integrity, professional integrity and intellectual integrity.
• The notion of integrity has to do with perceived steadiness of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcome.
• They stand up for their best judgement within a community of people trying to discover what in life is worth doing.
• With reference to accountability, integrity serves as a measure of willingness to adjust value system to maintain or improve its consistency when an expected result appears incongruent with observed outcome.

Conclusion

For an individual, it is professional duty and obligation which determine his professional integrity. This means conducting professional relationship and activities fairly, honestly, legally, and in conformance with the professional code of ethics. Thus integrity is the about fostering the ethical behaviour throughout an institutions through personal example, management practices and ethical training.