Public sector ethics training: officials in practice

Ethics training in the French civil service rests on precise obligations: dignity, impartiality, integrity, probity, neutrality and secularism (laïcité). For officials, the point is not to recite them. It is to know what to say to a user who insists, to an elected member who asks for a favor or to a colleague.

This article recalls the framework of the French General Civil Service Code (CGFP), then offers practice scenarios for officials who deal with the public. These are French rules, set out here as they stand; they are not transposed to other countries. For an overview of other obligations, see our guide to mandatory compliance training.

What are the ethical obligations of public officials?

The CGFP brings together officials' obligations in Title II of its Book I. Article L121-1 provides that public officials carry out their duties with dignity, impartiality, integrity and probity. These principles come from the law of April 20, 2016 on ethics and the rights and obligations of civil servants.

Article L121-2 adds the obligation of neutrality and respect for the principle of secularism, as well as equal treatment of persons. These obligations apply to civil servants as well as to public-law contract employees.

Article L121-5 defines a conflict of interest as any situation of interference between a public interest and public or private interests. This interference may influence the independent, impartial and objective performance of duties. Article L121-4 asks the official to prevent or end such situations. Article L122-1 describes the means of doing so, such as referring to one's supervisor or abstaining from signing or deliberating.

The ethics advisor and the secularism advisor

Article L124-2 provides that every public official has the right to consult an ethics advisor (référent déontologue), whose role is to advise them on compliance with their obligations. Article L124-3 requires administrations to appoint a secularism advisor (référent laïcité), who advises officials and department heads.

These advisors are only useful if officials dare to approach them. Yet many hesitate: fear of looking suspect, a feeling that the question is too small, worry about colleagues' opinions. Training must therefore also teach people to ask the question, out loud and early.

Why reading a charter is not enough

An ethics charter, however well written, describes principles. The counter official faces something else: a frustrated user, a line, a rule that has to be applied to someone they know. They need an answer ready.

The mechanism is the same as for all professional reflexes. Faced with an insistent request, the official first tries to preserve the relationship. The rule comes second. For it to come first, they must already have tried a sentence that holds both: refusing the request without refusing the person.

The 2021 recommendations of the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) also cover public-law legal entities. They insist on training based on practical cases and scenarios. They also recommend checking that the training has been understood, through a test or a follow-up after a few weeks.

Situations to act out for officials

The user who asks for special treatment

Imagine a user who knows the mayor and asks to be put ahead of other files. The official must stay courteous and firm: “I understand this is urgent for you. All files are processed in order of arrival, I can't make an exception.”

The thank-you gift

A person brings chocolates to the department that dealt with their request. The official must know when to accept, when to refuse, and how to say so: “Thank you, that's very kind. I can't accept anything personally. Your thanks mean a lot to us.” Internal rules specify the threshold and any declaration.

The request from an elected member or a supervisor

A manager asks an official to speed up the file of someone close to them. The pressure comes from inside and the official wants neither to disobey nor to betray their duty of impartiality. They can reply: “I'm happy to look, but I first need to check with the ethics advisor whether I can handle it.”

The secularism question at the counter

A user challenges an official's neutrality or asks for differential treatment on religious grounds. The official must stay neutral and polite, recall the framework without controversy, and know when to hand over to their manager or the secularism advisor.

Building a practice session

Collect from department heads the real situations that cause difficulty, with no names or identifying detail.
Choose the obligation targeted: impartiality, probity, neutrality or prevention of conflicts of interest.
Play the exchange with someone who insists at least twice.
Debrief on the exact phrases and on the moment the rule was stated, or forgotten.
Play again to fix a wording the official can reuse on the job.

Short sessions, repeated through the year, suit teams whose hours are constrained. Fifteen minutes as a team, with one case per session, leaves more traces than an annual module.

Adapting scenarios to the jobs in a local government

A reception officer, a case handler, a public buyer and a head of department do not meet the same temptations. The trainer does better to prepare a small number of scenarios per job rather than a single case for everyone.

For reception, you work on the line, insistence and the request for favorable treatment. For public procurement, you work on a bidder's invitation, the “informal” visit and the request for information before publication. For management, you work on pressure from an elected member and the choice between loyalty and impartiality.

Each scenario is best ended with the same question: who does the official talk to next? This systematic exit toward the advisor or the supervisor installs the right reflex, that of not being left alone with the doubt.

Common mistakes in ethics training

Bringing everything back to criminal law. Most situations are gray areas with nothing criminal about them.
Training only new arrivals. Experienced officials have habits, sometimes comfortable ones, that deserve questioning.
Ignoring managers. They are the first to receive doubts and pressures.
Using private-sector cases. An official recognizes themselves in the counter, the committee or public procurement, not in a commercial negotiation.
Leaving the advisor isolated. If nobody approaches them, the training has not made the step feel natural.

Role play to train the conversation

A role play lets the official practice these exchanges without risk to a real user. With Face Up, the trainer writes the scenario from the cases in their agency: the persona may be an insistent user or a colleague asking a favor. The official speaks out loud, then consults their debrief, which includes their quotes, their strengths and their areas for progress.

The aim is not to replace the advisor or the law: only they decide. The training prepares the official to hold a position without breaking the relationship. For the principle, see our page on role plays.

One last organizational point: involve the ethics advisor in designing the scenarios. They know the questions officials really ask them, and their presence at the report-back makes their role more familiar.

Measuring the effect of ethics training

The AFA's recommendations suggest tracking the coverage rate of the target audience and the number of hours spent. These indicators say whether the training took place, not whether it changed anything.

Complement them with signals from the field: the number of referrals to the ethics advisor, questions raised by managers, the evolution of answers in practice scenarios from one session to the next. Our article on the difference between completion and competence details this reasoning.

Frequently asked questions

Is training in secularism and ethics mandatory for officials?

The obligations in Articles L121-1 onwards of the CGFP apply to all public officials. Each administration must also provide access to an ethics advisor and a secularism advisor. The training arrangements fall under each employer's training plan. Check the texts that apply to your agency.

Who can approach the ethics advisor?

Any public official, under Article L124-2. The advisor gives advice, but does not decide in place of the hierarchical authority, which remains responsible.

What is the difference between ethics and probity?

Ethics refers to all of the official's duties. Probity is one principle within it: not drawing personal advantage from one's role. Anti-corruption practices in Sapin II training are close, even though the legal framework differs.