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Ethics on the national stage:
Gomery report and the election highlight procurement
By the time PMAC members and the supply chain profession read this issue of PMAC Pulse, substantive forces could be at work in Ottawa, leading to change in the framework for public procurement at the most senior national levels.
Justice John Gomery has released his recommendations for change in the federal procurement processes that led directly to the sponsorship scandal. The profession is also watching for introduction of the newly-elected government’s promised Federal Accountability Act—a core element of the policy platform which led to its election January 23.
While the final Gomery recommendations and the Accountability Act may vary in their details, they both spring from the same fundamental issue, according to PMAC president Robert Dye—a profound failure of ethical behaviour and professionalism.
“It’s not so much that there were no rules in place to prevent abuses in federal procurement. While they may have been somewhat scattered from federal ministry to ministry, there was a framework. The actual failure was a serious lack of commitment to the existing rules. A rulebook is useless without a commitment to live by the letter and the spirit of the rules. Simply said, what happened was a failure of professional values and ethical conduct.”
Ethical behaviour and professional conduct are key pillars of the Association’s Certified Professional Purchaser (C.P.P.) accreditation program, along with strategy, management and principals of supply chain management.
“For PMAC, adherence to the Association’s code of ethics is a condition of membership and a similar level of commitment to ethics will be necessary to ensure real change in how the federal government operates its supply chain,” Dye notes. “A new accountability law or a new set of policy recommendations will not amount to much unless they are underscored by a deep commitment to a rigorous code of professional values.”
The PMAC code of ethics (http://www.pmac.ca/about/ethics.asp) requires Association members to base both actions and decisions on a set of professional values: honesty, integrity, professionalism, responsible management, conformity to the law and a commitment to serving the broad public interest.
The PMAC code goes beyond a statement of commitment to ethics. It establishes norms of professional behaviour to which PMAC members must conform to avoid losing their membership privileges.
Rules of conduct
“The condemnation of improper behaviour matters a great deal,” Dye says. “One of the key findings in Justice Gomery’s Phase I report was acquiescence in the face of executive violations of the existing rules. No-one stood up to say ‘This is professionally wrong.’”
The PMAC code of ethics also establishes rules of conduct that govern confidentiality and accuracy of information, conflicts of interest, honest competition and bribery. Efforts to improve the regulatory and policy framework for public sector procurement have been in the works at the federal level since the sponsorship scandal was made public in the federal Auditor General’s 2003 report.
Public Works and Government Services Canada made a commitment in 2005 to work with the private sector to establish new standards of integrity in supply chain management. It is developing a code of fair contract practices described as “an integrity pact between government and those with whom it contracts.”
You can see a backgrounder on the new code of fair contract practices at the ministry web site: http://www.pwgsc.gc.ca/text/
articles/2005/10/2005-10-cfp-
backgrounder-e.html.
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