Ethics and Integrity: Impartiality & Non-partisanship

Impartiality means that, regardless of a public servants personal beliefs and preferences, and personal relationships with other servants or with members of the community; he or she must impartially serve the government of the day and treat members of the public and other public servants fairly and impartially.

Impartiality implies tolerance and restraint, particularly in dealing with political or religious convictions.

Relevance in Public Service

Impartiality lies at the heart of public service and is the core of the commitments of a public servant. A public servant must be impartial and must not act on the basis of nationality, race, religion, or political point of view. His / her service must be based on the principle of non-partisanship. Non-partisanship is an essential value of the public service and is foundation for the roles and responsibilities of public servants.

However, it’s a bitter truth that non-partisanship is now a days like a marital bliss, seldom achieved in public service. The civil servants often are seen conflicting with the principles of impartiality and loyalty. The Public servants are to be responsive to the needs and direction of their political masters, who have been democratically elected. The duty of loyalty many often becomes contradictory to a public servant’s obligation to act impartially.

Impartiality versus Non-partisanship

Impartiality and Non-partisanship both form essential foundational values for civil services. While impartiality ensures equality without any bias and prejudices in the general, non-partisanship ensures a neutral approach in politics and a solid commitment to the government.

Impartiality denotes that all the responsibilities of a person are carried out in a fair and just manner. It is a commitment to equality and diversity. Likewise, in politics, impartiality means acting in the general interest of the nation without any personal views coming in way of discharging duty. There are two which determine the foundation of a non-partisan public service. These are:

• Recruitment, promotions or even terminations should be completely free of any kind of political influence and done purely on merit basis.
• All public officials should perform their duties in an impartial manner.

Kenneth Kernaghan has put forth a model of political neutrality which suggests the following:

• Politics and policy are completely separate from administration. While politicians take policy decisions, it is the public officials which put them in execution.
• All public officials are recruited purely on merit basis and not depending on any political inclination or affiliation.
• Public officials do not engage in any partisan politics.
• Public officials do not express their personal views on government policies and administration.
• Public officials give correct and objective advice to their political masters.
• All policies are implemented with full zeal and enthusiasm keeping all personal biases at a side.

Despite the model, it has been rarely put to practice in its true form. Non-partisanship is an essential element of both a professional public service and responsible democratic government. A non-partisan public service is one where appointments are based on merit and free of political influence and where public servants perform their duties, and are seen to perform their duties, in a politically impartial manner.