Public Sector Ethics and Conduct Training Course

Participants can interpret and apply code-of-conduct provisions to common public sector conduct questions.

• Core code provisions: impartiality, integrity, professionalism, respect and accountability
• Translating values statements into observable employee and manager behaviours
• Applying conduct rules consistently across grades, functions and employment types
• Distinguishing policy breaches from poor performance and capability concerns
• Documenting advice, decisions and exceptions using a defensible rationale
• Testing code provisions against realistic ambiguity and competing duties
• Reviewing code accessibility, acknowledgement processes and periodic policy refreshes

Participants can assess, disclose and manage conflicts of interest using proportionate controls.

• Actual, potential and perceived conflicts distinguished through practical examples
• Conflict-of-interest declarations: interests, relationships, assets and outside employment
• Assessing materiality, proximity, decision influence and public perception
• Management options: recusal, restriction, reassignment, divestment and resignation
• Maintaining conflict registers, approval records and review dates
• Applying post-employment restrictions and revolving-door risk assessments
• Responding when undisclosed interests emerge during an active decision

Participants can decide whether benefits, invitations and personal use of office create unacceptable risk.

• Gifts and hospitality assessed against value, purpose, timing and influence
• Recording, declining, surrendering or approving benefits under policy thresholds
• Supplier-sponsored travel, conferences and meals examined for procurement influence
• Misuse of position through preferential access, endorsements and unofficial requests
• Public resources: vehicles, equipment, staff time, travel and facilities
• Political activity boundaries for impartial public officials and civil servants
• Writing clear advice for employees facing pressure to accept benefits

Participants can apply conduct requirements to confidential information, records and digital communications.

• Confidential, personal, classified and commercially sensitive information distinguished
• Need-to-know access controls and authorised information-sharing decisions
• Records management duties, retention schedules and defensible deletion practices
• Social media conduct, private messaging and unofficial communication channels
• Managing personal data under lawful purpose, minimisation and access principles
• Responding to accidental disclosure, unauthorised access and lost devices
• Separating protected disclosures from improper release of confidential information

Participants can establish safe reporting routes and respond appropriately to retaliation risks.

• Reporting channels for misconduct, fraud, harassment and ethical concerns
• Protected disclosure criteria under whistleblowing laws and organisational policies
• Anonymous reports assessed for specificity, credibility and corroborating information
• Retaliation indicators: exclusion, reassignment, intimidation and adverse performance action
• Confidentiality limits explained without discouraging good-faith reporting
• Intake records capturing allegation, source, urgency, evidence and safeguarding needs
• Escalation routes for senior officials, political appointees and external parties

Participants can triage allegations and conduct initial fact-finding while preserving procedural fairness.

• Triage criteria: seriousness, urgency, evidence, jurisdiction and safeguarding risk
• Separating administrative inquiries, disciplinary investigations and criminal referrals
• Preserving documents, digital records and witness recollections from the outset
• Terms of reference defining allegations, scope, authority and reporting lines
• Fairness principles: notice, impartiality, response opportunity and reasoned decisions
• Interview planning using chronology, open questions and corroboration checks
• Managing interim measures without predetermining guilt or imposing punishment

Participants can support consistent, evidence-based and proportionate responses to substantiated misconduct.

• Burden and standard of proof in administrative disciplinary proceedings
• Evidence matrices linking allegations, sources, findings and policy provisions
• Aggravating and mitigating factors in sanction recommendation decisions
• Progressive discipline, serious misconduct and dismissal threshold distinctions
• Consistency checks using comparable cases without ignoring individual circumstances
• Writing findings, recommendations and decision letters with clear reasoning
• Appeal rights, review mechanisms and records required for defensible outcomes

Participants can identify conduct risks and select integrity controls for high-risk public processes.

• Procurement red flags: bid rigging, favouritism, split purchases and collusion
• Tender evaluation safeguards: declarations, recusals, scoring records and observer roles
• Grant and humanitarian assistance risks in beneficiary selection and partner oversight
• Recruitment integrity controls for nepotism, patronage and panel bias
• Segregation of duties mapped across approval, payment and reconciliation stages
• COSO control activities applied to conduct-sensitive operational processes
• Monitoring indicators for repeat breaches, overdue declarations and control failures

Participants can prepare a practical plan for improving ethics governance and conduct enforcement.

• Integrity governance roles for boards, executives, managers and oversight functions
• ISO 37001 anti-bribery controls and their relationship to conduct systems
• Ethics risk assessment using likelihood, impact, control strength and ownership
• Training, communications and manager briefings targeted to identified conduct risks
• Key indicators for disclosures, reports, case timeliness and repeat misconduct
• Periodic code review informed by cases, employee feedback and legal changes
• Ninety-day ethics action plan with owners, milestones and evidence measures