(A)  Some common ethical problems in the public sector are:

• Bribery. This involves offering, giving, receiving or soliciting something of value to influence actions or decisions in the public sector. This is a widespread ethical issue in the public sector of Unity.
• Nepotism: This refers to the practice of giving Favours, appointments or other benefits to family, friends and close associates. It undermines fairness, equality, and meritocracy. For instances, recruitments and promotions in the public sector are carried out to Favour family, friends and closed associates, therefore denying the sector with the right competences that might result from fair, equitable and meritorious recruitment process.
• Theft. This is a form of corruption that involves unauthorized taking or misuse of public funds, resources or assets for person gain or benefits. It may take the form of embezzlement.
• Conflict of interests. This occurs when a public officer’s personal interest clashes with their official duties, potentially leading to decisions that Favours personal gain over public interest.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        (ii)

  Ethics management refers to the systematic approach taken by organizations to promote ethical behavior and decision-making among their members. It involves establishing policies, procedures, and practices that guide individuals in recognizing, understanding, and addressing ethical dilemmas in their professional roles. Ethics management aims to create a culture of integrity, accountability, and responsibility within an organization, ensuring that ethical considerations are integrated into all aspects of its operations and decision-making processes. This includes fostering ethical leadership, providing ethics training and education, implementing mechanisms for reporting unethical behavior, and enforcing ethical standards, through appropriate disciplinary actions when necessary. Overall, ethics management seeks to uphold ethical principles and values, thereby enhancing trust, credibility, and reputation both internally and externally.

  Approaches of ethical management are:

  • The compliance approach to ethics management priorities external controls over the behavior of public servants. It advocates for the implementation of formal and detailed rules and procedures, with the ultimate goal of limiting individual ethical choices to adhering to the rules (considered ethical) or violating them through commission or omission (deemed unethical). This approach commonly employs instruments such as legislation, stringent behavioral ethics codes, and other rules, extensive control mechanisms, and control institutions endowed with substantial authority.
  • The integrity approach emphasizes internal control, focusing on self-regulation by individual public servants. This internal control mechanism comprises two key components. Firstly, it involves enhancing the moral judgment capacity of public servants through two avenues: (a) Learning and comprehending essential values and norms and (b) developing the skills necessary for ethical decision-making, particularly when faced with conflicting values in daily practice. Secondly, internal control entails fostering moral character, which is the intrinsic motivation to act upon ethical judgments derived from ethical decision-making. Integrity management endeavors to bolster moral character and enhance ethical decision-making skills through various methods, such as interactive training sessions, workshops, comprehensive codes of values, individual coaching, and similar initiatives.
  • Other approaches with the Compliance-Integrity Continuum include management by contrived randomness, management by competition management by oversight and review, management by mutuality.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          (B)

    Professional skepticism entails continuously questioning the information and evidence presented, as well as critically assessing the assumptions, expectations, and representations made by management. The International Auditing and Assurance Standard Board (IAASB) defines professional skepticism as an attitude that includes a questioning mind, being alert to conditions which may indicate possible misstatement due to error or fraud, and a critical assessment of evidence.

    Professional skepticism is a critical mind-set and approach adopted by professional accountants, particularly auditors, to enhance their ability to identify risks of material misstatement and effectively respond to those risks. It involves maintaining an attitude of questioning, critical assessment, and unbiased evaluation of audit evidence, assertions, and information obtained during the conduct of a professional work. Professional skepticism is closely intertwined with fundamental ethical principles of auditor objectivity and independence, as it requires professional accountants to maintain impartiality and resist undue influence or pressure that may compromise their judgment.