Cultivating a culture of integrity: Instilling integrity values and managing conflict-of-interest

While a rules-based approach is a necessary foundation of any public sector integrity system, this aspect alone is insufficient, since integrity values must be internalised by individuals and socialised in organisations to ultimately create a “culture of integrity” in government. This is an important shift that must be made in Mexico if new reforms are to succeed. This chapter presents a summary of proposals for improvement based on the analysis of the current Mexican policies for promoting ethics and managing conflict-ofinterest situations in the public administration. The first section provides recommendations to strengthen the policy framework currently implemented by the Ministry of Public Administration (Secretaría de la Función Pública, SFP), i.e. the Ethics Code, the codes of conduct at the organisational level, the Integrity Rules, and the conflict-of-interest guidelines. Section two elaborates proposals on how to maximise the utility of declarations and ensure consistency across line ministries and organisations in verifying and auditing submissions. The third section examines how to better mainstream new policies throughout the administration, and more specifically into human resource management (HRM). The final section reflects on how Mexico could make the shift towards a culture of integrity by reinforcing its guidance on resolving ethical dilemmas and conflict-of-interest situations. Emphasis throughout the chapter is placed on the federal administration, with the understanding that as members of national anticorruption systems (NACS), local integrity systems will follow suit at state and local levels. Therefore, many of the recommendations are applicable beyond the federal level.