Ethical Violations - Politics Unethical Political Behaviors

Ethical Violations - Politics Unethical political behaviors include: breaching the public trust by manipulating facts; favoring a policy that harms the public interest; profiting personally when public tax dollars are in play; or using one's political position for personal gain. The Union of Concern Scientists (UCS) issued a report in 2004 that accuses the George W.

Bush Administration of conducting a "…well-established pattern of suppression and distortion of scientific findings by high-ranking Bush… political appointees across numerous federal agencies." (Over 5,300 scientists signed a statement agreeing with the UCS findings.) For ONE example, the following scientific studies were either censored or had key facts removed by the Bush Administration prior to release to the media and the public: air pollution; "heat-trapping emissions"; "reproductive health"; "drug resistant bacteria"; "endangered species"; "forest health" and "military intelligence" (UCS). This is an enormously unethical policy.

Why would the Bush Administration censor science on heat-trapping emissions? Likely because Bush was hesitant to admit that global climate change was as serious as it really is. Example TWO: The vice president under Bush, Dick Cheney, said when he achieved the office of vice presidency he would sever all ties with Halliburton, a company he previously served as CEO. Did he really sever ties? The Government Accounting Office reported Cheney continued to receive compensation from Halliburton while serving as vice president (Cornell University).

Example THREE: After first vigorously denying the reports that he sent "sexually suggestive pictures of himself…" to several women (he is a married man), Congressman Anthony Weiner admitted to having done what he earlier had denied. He resigned in shame. (Lillis, 2011).

Post-Employment Ethical Violations In many private industry organizations -- and in all federal government agencies -- once a person is no longer employed by an agency, for a certain period of time he or she is not permitted to act in advocacy for another firm using leverage and connections obtained while employed by the first agency.

Example ONE: As a person leaves his federal position he or she may not "knowingly communicate with, or appear before, a current employee of the United States on behalf of any other person…with the intent to influence the current employee's actions…" (www.usda-ethics.net). An example of that ethical violation: a federal employee gives consideration of a claim made by a party outside the government, but when that federal employee retires he then represents that "same claimant in a continuation of the same claim" (www.usda-ethics.net).

Example TWO: In the Google "Code of Conduct" document the technology company explains that while it respects "competitors" and wishes to "compete with them fairly" it cannot condone the sharing of other companies' "confidential information." Likewise, a former Google employee should not share any confidential information with other companies. And should the opportunity present itself "…to take advantage of a competitor's or former employer's confidential information, don't do it…" because it is an unethical breach of trust.

In other words, if a former employee of Google comes into contract with a competitor's confidential information, that former employee should contact the Google legal department "immediately" (Google Code of Conduct). Example THREE: When a company loses customer information to competitors because a former employee made "unauthorized use" of that employer's customer list, is it wholly unethical and illegal as well. The Ohio Supreme Court recently upheld a verdict against a man who "…left a financial services firm and recruited.