GS4 · 10 marks · 150 words

One hallmark of good governance is government departments' adherence to strict ethical standards when procuring goods and services for public programmes. Identify and explain the ethical principles that must be respected to maintain the integrity of the procurement process.

Answered by 7 toppers · CSE 2024–2025

Probity in GovernanceUtilisation of Public FundsTransparency and InformationIntegrity

Syllabus: Probity in Governance: Concept of public service; Philosophical basis of governance and probity; Information sharing and transparency in government, Right to Information, Codes of Ethics, Codes of Conduct, Citizen’s Charters, Work culture, Quality of service delivery, Utilization of public funds, challenges of corruption.

How toppers approached it

From all 7 answers · about 140 words · 29% drew a diagram.

Opening

  • No separate opening86%
  • A quotation14%

Body

  • Points86%
  • Points and prose14%

Close

  • No separate close29%
  • A summary29%
  • A way forward29%
  • A quotation14%

The toppers’ answers

Raghav JhunjhunwalaAIR 4 · CSE 2025 · 161 wordsTheir whole copy

Opening

Govt procurement programs for service delivery is critical in many aspects for our nation: Demand generation, public welfare, etc.

Body · points

Why Ethical standards are needed

(1) To prevent corruption: ↳ High amount of public funds, avenue of power misuse, etc.

(2) Upholding accountability later: ↳ To help officers stand the scrutiny of inspection.

(3) To prevent concentration of power, Equal opportunity, etc. (Art-39 DPSP)

(4) To improve quality of service delivery (welfare)

Ethical principles to maintain the Integrity via procurement

(1) Non discrimination ↳ Using e-competitive bidding to provide equal opportunity to all participants.

(2) Awareness ↳ The info. about procurement must be widely circulated to encourage enough interests for participation.

(3) Objectivity ↳ Reducing bureaucratic discretion, ↳ Blockchain based workflows, etc. ↳ Reducing scope for subjective decisions.

(4) Transparency

Close

↳ Digital platforms with 3rd party audits ↳ Determined SOPs.

The lack of Integrity led to numerous scams like 2G, CWG, etc. which are pitiable dents upon Ethical fulcrum of service delivery.

More on Probity in Governance

The concept of public service and the philosophical basis of governance and probity, taken as the syllabus states it.

All GS4 questions on Probity in Governance