Case study for Question 1

Ethical Dilemma in Local Government, prepared by Robert Dibie, 2009. Read this case study and answer the questions that follow:

As the new Director of the Code of Ethics or Conducts for the Local

Government, evaluate the ethical issues in the following case study:

Mr Karo sat in his office at the city of Ozoro in Isoko North Local Government area, and pondered his ethical dilemma. During his 35 years of service to the city Mr Karo had worked in different capacities. He had served as assistant manager, manager and acting director respectively in the budgeting, transportation, tax, auditing, mayors office, payroll, accounting and planning departments. Mr Karo has a brother called Mr Ajiri who he trained in college. Mr Ajiri graduated from college with a master of business administration and a master of public administration degrees, and became a successful businessman in the city of Ozoro. Three months after Mr Karo had made a presentation to the city council the new mayor hit it off and became friends with him. Over lunch two weeks after they became close friends, the mayor mentioned to Mr Karo that his brother Mr Ajiri had a good chance of getting a $5 million-a-year contract from the city. The contract was a five-year deal to build a new school, as well as install pumps for the city of Ozoros Town Hall. The mayor also informed Mr Karo that his brothers (Mr Ajiris) bid was somewhat higher than the rest, and that he should lower it. Mr Karo thanked the mayor for the information and asked his brother, Mr Ajiri, to resubmit a bid slightly lower than the previous one. A week later, the mayor called Mr Karo and told him that there was the probability that Mr Ajiri would get the contract for the new school and the replacement pumps. The mayor, however, requested a small gift of $50,000 for the contract in essence a bribe. At first Mr Karo told the mayor that he would think about it. Mr Karo called his brother, Mr Ajiri, and delivered the mayors message. Mr Karo told Mr Ajiri that it was against Trinidad and Tobago law to offer a bribe to anyone in order to secure privileged information or contracts. Mr Ajiri was, however, more concerned with how he could get the contract than in obeying the law. Mr Ajiri told his older brother, Mr Karo, to do whatever it took to secure the contract for him. This seems to be a blackand- white decision, but Mr Karo knew differently. After 35 years with the local government civil service, Mr Karo recognised that if he was caught giving the mayor a bribe, he could probably be fired. With retirement only a few years away, he needed his pension. Mr Karo, however, had to succumb to the pressure from his brother and they went ahead and fulfilled the demands of the mayor. It will be recalled that as soon as the mayor was elected, he redesigned the structure of the city administration without consulting the city council. The new structure of the city administration has fallen into disfavour, however, because he was insensitive to human needs and not worried about the impact on the changing political environment. The mayor tends to use double standards in the implementation of city policies. While the human resources and public works department directors functions were centralised, the mayor allowed the five directors whom he hired himself to perform decentralised functions. The fact that the mayor redesigned the organisation without consulting with the city council, deputy mayor, and the some directors created tension in the city. This act made the city council, deputy mayor, and some directors lose a sense of ownership as well as preventing them from doing their job effectively. On the one hand, the mayor wanted to improve performance in the city, however, he ignored the importance of economic effectiveness and employee satisfaction. Employees satisfaction should have been one of the goals of the city. He fired 200 employees and discriminated against older people and women in the citys administration. On the other hand, the mayors domination of city management blocked the basic human needs of staff being able to express themselves and to accomplish tasks successfully. Such dissatisfaction had led to a high employee turnover rate and poor performance. The citys workforce performance would have been enhanced if the mayor had promoted peoples feelings of self-worth. Thus, the mayor systematically promoted the old boy network and underplayed the importance of dedicated employees who had been with the city administration for more than five years. The mayor rigidly controlled employees' activities in the citys administration. In another development Mr Karos boss, Dr Oyigbo, the chief accountant of the local government, denied Mr Karo promotion to become senior accountant. Six weeks after the incident, Ms Bola an accountant with the local government noticed Mr Karo behaving in an odd manner. He left early and came to work late. One Sunday morning, Ms Bola went into the office to complete the job she had started on Friday afternoon. She found Mr Karo in the office that morning copying some of the software the local government uses in auditing and consulting. A few weeks later at a dinner party Ms Bola overheard a conversation about Mr Karo doing consulting work for some small firms. At work the next Monday morning, she asked Mr Karo if what she heard was true. It was the policy of the city for senior employees not to do business with any of their clients organisations. This is because such an act could constitute a breach of the ethics or the code of conduct of the city government. The city is strongly committed to implementing its policies and regulatory programmes. Mr Karo responded, Yes it is true. I have a few clients that I do work for on occasions, but they are located outside the city. Dont you think there is a conflict of interest between you and the local government? Mr. Karo replied: I was counting on that promotion to help pay some extra bills. My oldest son decided to go to a private university, which cost an extra $20,000. In addition, our medical plan at the local government does not cover some problems my wife has. In addition, you do not want to know the cost. The only way I can afford to pay for all these things is to do some extra work on the side. Apart from this incident, Ms Bola knew that Mr Karo, one of her valued employees, was stealing from the local government office not much, and in a way that no one but Ms Bola would ever know. Ms Bola also knew that without Mr Karo, her unit could never complete a newly assigned task on time. She decided to do nothing about bringing the stealing incident to a stop and secretly hoped that success in the new assignment would bring about a long-desired promotion and get her out of the awkward situation. After the new project ended, Ms Bola was promoted to be the city senior accountant. Ms Bola arrived at work one morning and found an envelope delivered by the mayor filled with receipts from a recent trip he took to an economic development conference. Included were receipts from a four-day vacation the mayor and his wife took at a Caribbean Island resort. It was clear that the mayor wanted the city to reimburse him for everything included in the envelope. Six months into her new position as the city senior accountant, Ms Bola conducted a random check on long-distance telephone calls at the city mayors office. She found that 30 per cent of long distance calls were personal (though charged to the city government). The cost of the calls was estimated at $43,000 for three months and, by extrapolation, almost $200,000 a year for the whole city. Many calls were placed to homes of employees or their relatives, while others were calls to pre-recorded messages, such as time and temperature, horoscope and financial information. Penalties for unauthorised use of city telephone lines include fines, suspension and dismissal. Ms Bola was very reluctant to fire several of the guilty staff at the local government so she decided to cover up her findings about the wrongful use of telephones.

Question 1 a). Who are the main actors in the case and what are their interests and responsibilities in the city? (30 Marks) b). What were the circumstances and factors that led to the unethical crisis in the city? What type of issue is it? (20 marks) c). Provide a detailed analysis of the nature of the ethical problems facing the city. (20 marks) d). Provide a detailed recommendation plan of action on how to solve the citys ethical problems, as well as the type of punishment that could be imposed on those officers found guilty of unethical behaviour. (30 marks) Total=100marks