Factors Influencing the Efficacy of Institutional Design Concerning the Registering of Civil Servants about Illegal Lobbying And Influence Peddling

• Main Authors: Chang-Yu Chen, 陳昌嶼
• Other Authors: I-Jan Yeh
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/06761489849879908822

碩士 === 世新大學 === 國際廉能治理碩士在職學程 === 103 === The Executive Yuan promulgated “Well-formed Government Ethics Program” on September 14, 1993, to regulate civil servants in properly performing their duties along with promoting government image with respect to integrity. This piece of executive decree marked the beginning of regulating the conduct of public servants in aspects relating to lobbying and influence peddling and codifying into ordinance. Later on in 1993, 2008, and 2012, the Executive Yuan issued “Well-formed Government Ethics Program”, “Integrity and Ethics Directions for Civil Service Workers”, and “Executive Yuan and its subordinate agencies lobbying and peddling login Inspections Operating Guidelines” respectively (“Well-formed Government Ethics Program” was phased out as of 2009). During the meanwhile, the agency responsible for administering related executive decrees has been changed from Civil Ethic Division under Ministry of Justice to become an independent agency called Agency Against Corruption. Yet, the process and progression of anticorruption authorities and related ordinances have not been systematically studied and evaluated in depth, either in official or within academic communities. In light of the aforementioned, this research is therefore focusing on nationwide government agencies equipped with formal civil service ethics departments. At first stage, 13 in-depth interviews were conducted targeting for head officials or staff in charge of ethic departments. The purpose was to obtain opinions and suggestions regarding current status of operation, challenges confronting their departments, and issues of interests in this research. Based on insights gained in qualitative research, A questionnaire survey was administered to respondents drawn from 337 civil service ethics departments belong to second-tier agencies in central government and agencies in local government. Meanwhile, related resolution reports of disciplinary action against public employees and government’s research reports were examined as well. The major findings of this research are as follows: (1) There are practical benefits for promoting integrity that can be gained from the system instituted for registering lobbying and influence peddling. (2) More efforts should be directed toward fine tuning the operational definitions of and what constitute illegal lobbying and influence peddling, and related regulations ought to be codified into statues instead of decrees. (3) Conflicts arising from the dual systems of registering lobbying and influence peddling should be resolved or streamlined. (4) The variation in lobbying and influence peddling can be attributed to different mandates within governmental agencies, different level of civil servants, and different social values. (5) In addition to the system of registering lobbying and influence peddling, more emphases needed to be put on the ethical education in public agency. (6) The determination and resolution of agency head have decisive impact on the effectiveness of the system of registering lobbying and influence peddling. Meanwhile, from the perspective of corruption prevention and enhancing the function of this system, five concrete and feasible recommendations can be summarized as follows: (I) Speed up the legislative procedure of “Civil Service Worker Standards Act” to raise the legal status of pertinent regulations. (II) Establish the standard operating procedure (SOP) for examination and punishment to strengthen the random inspection mechanism in order to thoroughly eradicate the bureaucratic cultures laden with influence peddling. (III) Streamline the system of registering lobbying and influence peddling and consolidate the work of source management. Moreover, freedom of information and administrative transparency should further be strengthened. (IV) Assisted with ethics education to internalize the core value of civil service among public servants. (V) Promoting accountability among chiefs of agency across all level of government as a cure for curtailing illegal lobbying and influence peddling.