Ethics for decision-makers [1]
Sunday, March 30, 2003 - 10:38. Updated on Friday, February 19, 2016 - 15:55.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 1, March 2003.
Margaret Durham from the New South Wales Department of Education and Training, Australia, ran a two-day workshop on Ethics in Business in Nuku’alofa from February 19-20.
The workshop was attended by managers, company directors and representatives of private business enterprises and government-owned enterprises.
The workshop dealt with a number of fundamental topics such as Institutional Ethics, which covered Conflicts of interest, Corruption, the Role of Codes, and Transparency and Information Sharing. It also tried to answer some of the ethical questions such as, ‘Why do we Need Ethics in Business and Government?’, ‘Developing an ethical decision-making framework, What should I do?’
Margaret stressed the importance for managers to make ethical decisions, particularly when there was no legislation to guide them.
Tonga had yet to enact employment legislation, even though a bill had been drafted but it had yet to be presented to parliament.
In the absence of an Employment Act, the civil service had their own Code of Conduct, while private enterprises were left to make their own ethical decisions and code of conduct.
A guest speaker at the workshop, Siaosi ‘Aho, the Commissioner for Public Relations, said that his Commission was established by a legislation that came into force in 2001, and his jurisdiction covered all government ministeries and government-owned enterprises. He said that although his jurisdiction was wide, in the case of complaints made by the public his authority was limited to recommending to heads of departments what should be done, and if a particular department failed to take any action to quell a complaint then he would report straight to Privy Council.
Siaosi said that the commission was an independent body, with a commissioner who was appointed by the Privy Council.