The Ministry of Administrative Development Labour and Social Affairs, represented by the Institute of Public Administration, concluded the meeting of the 'Code of Conduct and Integrity of Public Officials', which it established in co-operation with the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority within the enrichment meetings that the institute holds annually for the participants to develop the skills of those working in leadership and supervisory positions.
General Director of the Institute of Public Administration Abdulaziz Saad al-Majali said during the meeting in which the directors of departments, assistant managers and heads of departments in a number of government agencies participated through visual communication technology, the need to continue co-operation between the institute and government agencies to implement training programmes, meetings and joint activities to implement the national strategy.
He stressed that the code of conduct and integrity for public officials, which was issued by Cabinet Decision No.(18) of 2020 and ratified by His Highness the Amir, has set behavioural standards that govern the work of the employee who works in the public sector. Among the most important of these behavioural standards are honesty, objectivity, fairness, equality, transparency, and integrity.
He indicated that the charter is consistent with the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which Qatar signed in 2008. At the national level, this charter comes in light of the achievement of Qatar National Vision 2030.
Furthermore, al-Majali referred to the speech of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, at the 48th session of the Shura Council 2019, which is: deep sense of duty by the individual citizen towards the society and the homeland.
Citizenship includes rights not privileges. It doesn't only involve rights but also responsibilities and duties, foremost among them is to work sincerely and with precision, each in his position, as each position is important.
In turn, the first and second axis of the meeting was presented by Amal al-Kuwari and spoke about public employment and the public employee, its ethics, benefits and implications for work by offering examples of positive behaviours at work. She touched on the goal of the meeting, which is to introduce the code of conduct and integrity of public employees and to strengthen the values of integrity and transparency with regard to public employment, through getting acquainted with the basic rules of public office ethics and building values and a professional culture based on honesty and loyalty, and defining the relationships between the employee and his superiors and subordinates.
She focused on building an efficient workforce committed to work ethics, and its emphasis on the optimal use of public resources. Al-Kuwari added that the charter is a foundation on what is stipulated in the permanent constitution of Qatar that public jobs are a national service, and that the public employee in the performance of his job duties targets the public interest alone.She linked the issuance of the charter and its relationship with the position of Qatar among the countries that fight corruption in all its forms.
As Qatar is considered one of the advanced countries in terms of integrity, transparency and fighting corruption, and Transparency International confirms this through its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), as Qatar ranked 32 in the Arab world out of 180 countries in the world. Ghalia al-Qahtani addressed the third and fourth axes related to job specialisations, and touched on some of the details of the articles of the charter and their relationship with the work environment and the rules and behaviours of the public employee.
She linked the job competencies with the code of conduct and integrity of public officials, and showed that the charter is consistent with the highest international standards in this field. On top of these are the United Nations Convention against Corruption, the International Code of Conduct for Public Officials issued by the UN General Assembly, and codes of conduct and civil service ethics for many countries of the world.
Related Story