Corruption in Public Sector (Florida Department of Children and Families) Case Study
The Florida DCF (Department of Children and Families) provides social services for families, children, refugees, adults, human trafficking victims, elderly people, disabled and homeless community. The DCF establishes the Office of Public Integrity to assist in investigating fraud within the organization and programs implemented by the Florida DCF.
Objective of this paper is to investigate corruption in the public sector using the DCF as a case study.
Corruption in the Public Sector (Florida Children and Families) Case Study
Corruption is an abuse of an entrusted public official's posts for private gain. In other words, corruption is the use of the public officials' entrusted power to achieve illegitimate private gain. Form of corruption includes embezzlement, extortion, bribery, nepotism, and influence peddling. Corruption can make public officials to distort policies or distort central state functioning that enables public officials to derive benefits at the expense of public goods.
In the United States, level of corruption is rampant in the public sector among public officials. March (2012) points out that Florida ranks number one state in the United States where government corruption ranks highest. The corruption index among the states in the United States is the strategy to measure level of corruption in the public sector. Typically, the Florida is among the top states with high corruption index. March (2012) reveals that Florida had 781 federal corruption convictions between 2000 and 2010. During the period, 781 public officials were convicted for charges in public corruption.
Wilson, (2013) adds to the argument by pointing out that political corruption undermines societal fabric. A report by the U.S. Department of Justice (2007) revealed that Florida had the highest corruption index within the last 10-year period. In Florida, more than one million children are the victims of child abuse. The corruption that affects the entire state also affects the Florida Children and Families. In essence, the public planning is very critical for the delivery of effective and efficient services to achieve cost effectiveness to the public sector.
Evaluation the Relationship between Public Planning and Efficient Cost Effectiveness to the Public
Public planning is a dynamic strategy designed to improve people and the community to create equitable, convenient, efficient, healthful and attractive places for future and presents generations. Typically, planning assists public officials, and civil leaders to play meaningful role to enrich people's lives. Delivery of efficient and effective services in the public sector relies on public planning, which makes public officials to be free of corruption. Moreover, planning assists in finding right balance, and good public planning creates innovation changes.
Chery (2011) argues that one of the vital components of public planning is good governance. Essentially, governance is power offered to public officials to exercise effective management of social and economic resources. Good governance in a public sector is to encourage public officials to follow professional ethics and regulations so that these officials will avoid in indulging in governmental and political corruption. To enhance public accountability and transparency, government departments are required to develop new laws and policies to prevent corruptions. The first step towards implementing good governance is to communicate a clear organizational goal to the government employees.
Accountability of public officials is another strategy to deliver efficient cost effective public services. Legitimacy goes hand-in-hand with accountability. Legitimacy is a regulation that requires public officials to execute their duties to foster the acceptance of policies to enhance delivery of public goods and services that will be acceptable to the public. Transparency is the extent public service and public functions are open to scrutiny. Through active participation of public officials, the transparent accountability is possible.
The best strategy to enhance accountability, transparency and legitimacy in the public is to implement the principle of check and balance where public officials check on the work of other officials to prevent corruption. Moreover, there is a need to divide the responsibilities among public employees. In other words, there should be a separation of job responsibilities. For example, the same official should not carry out the jobs of both internal auditor and accountant. A separate official should carry out the job public accountant and internal auditor to prevent frauds within the public sector. This strategic planning is cost effective because it only requires training and laid down rules and regulation that public officials should follow.
Complex Decision Making utilizing Best Productivity in the Public and Private Domains
Making a decision is one of the complex important tasks that public administrator...
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