Public Integrity and Post-Public Employment: Issues, Remedies and Benchmarks

Post-public employment is one of several variations of the broad concept of conflict of interest, that is, the use of public office for private gain.1 Most post-employment offences occur when public officials use, or appear to use, information or contacts acquired while in government to benefit themselves, or others, after they leave government. However, despite use of the term post-public employment, these offences can actually occur before officials leave government. For example, a serving public official can give preferential treatment to a business firm with a view to obtaining employment with that firm after leaving government. If the official is successful in obtaining that employment and leaves government, he or she can then commit post-employment offences. For example, the official can use confidential information obtained while in government to the benefit of his or her new employer. Thus, a post-employment offence can arise both from the use of one’s current public office for private gain and from the wrongful exploitation of one’s previous public office. For the most part, however, the focus of this paper is on the behaviour of former public officials in their relations with government. Based on the experience of leading OECD countries, the paper will support the development of a state of the art handbook by covering all relevant aspects of a sound and comprehensive framework for preventing conflict of interest in post-public employment...