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By way of a definition, codes of conduct are comprehensive body of rules and regulations designed to guide the general conduct of the official worker. In Nigerian Public Sector composed of the Federal Ministries and Parastarals (Federal services), state ministries and parastatals (state services). Local Government and their parastatals (Local Government services), the code of conduct is referred to as the civil service rules.

Since Nigeria operates a Federal System, there are Federal Civil Service Rules and several state civil services rules. The state civil service rule governs each state? And local government services. This arrangement seems to make local government comply with the state

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rules and regulations except in few cases where local government bye laws provide directives and laws to take care of local peculiar situations. Since it would not be convenient to present the details of the civil services rules in a book of this nature, we shall examine here below some important basic rules of civil service code of conduct.

The following are some important code of conduct every civil servant should be conversant with and abide by in the process of work and in their private lives as public servants.

1. The first and most imperative duty of the employee is to consciously discharge his office and all duties assigned to him;

2. An employee should obey the official orders of his superiors so far as they do not contradict the law of the land. The subordinate is therefore not permitted" to question the orders of his superior, but he would not be to simply obey as assigned because he won’t held responsible for his action but his boss would have to be held accountable. This is in agreement with the requirement of hierarchy" and "Delegation of Authority" principles.

However, to safeguard the subordinate, the superior's orders or command must satisfy the following conditions:

(a) It must be within the local and material competence of the office.

(b) It must be within the competence of the subordinate

(c) It must not be contradicting to the constitution and the laws; and (d) It must be regular in form.

3. The employee must carry on his duties with sincerity and probity, with impartiality and integrity and with industriousness and care. He should not think of his personal, communal or political interest. While discharging his official duties. What is required of him is not only that

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he should not prejudice personal ends but also that his conduct should be above suspicion;

4. Employees have to be truthful in their official dealings, even when they are under a charge;

5. Respect for superiors inside as well as outside the office, even when the superior is objectionable in character. Courtesy towards subordinates and politeness to the public are among other obligations of the employee;

6. Safeguard and maintenance of the dignity and respect of the organization is another/obligation of the employee. They should not allow an insult, however slight, to the office to pass unnoticed. This is because the official at all times is the concrete representative of the organization and he should preserve the dignity of his office and the entire nation at large;

7. Even in their unofficial and private life, employees are enjoined to so behave as not to affect the dignity, confidence and respect of their office. e.g. They should not lead irregular life, indulge in gambling and sensuous pleasure or contract debts and maintain high standard of moral;

8. Employees are whole-time workers for the organization. They therefore, cannot take any additional office or employment other than their office ones. This implies that employees should not indulge in part-time venture s or what is commonly known as private practice (PP) during the official hours. In fact even the official dependents are not supposed to take such trade that is likely to cause suspicion upon official's integrity and impartiality;

9. The employee must observe official secrecy. He/she has to observe secrecy not only during his active service but also after retirement. In every country this duty forms a comprehensive code of behaviour;

10. Employees have to be punctual in their work, as punctuality is the essence of efficiency.

For further clarifications see the civil service rules and other related documents.

176 3.2 Meaning and Nature of Discipline

Discipline generally connote assort of training of the mind and character design to produce self-control and habits of obedience and compliance to the behaviour standards and rules of the constituted authority. A disciplined staff is therefore a staff that has trained himself or has been trained by the social system to behave in a desired way by conforming to the written and unwritten orders, norms and policies of an organization or society.

Discipline is an essential condition for the smooth running of any organization be it public or private. This is so because once people (workers) understand what is expected of them they tend to show higher tendencies for complying and behaving in a desired manner. Thus, codes of conduct are meant to instill self-discipline on the workers because self discipline is considered as the most enlightened and civilized form of discipline in social organization.

However, in spite of the rules, human beings have demonstrated higher tendencies for refusing to conform with the rules and because of this, organizations are forced to provide some forms of deliberate procedure for regulating, controlling and coercing (forcing) the worker to obey the rules of the workplace so as to ensure that every staff perform their duties and adjust their conduct to conform to the acceptable standards.

EXERCISE

Identify and discuss the relevance of some code of conduct in your organization.