Virkavastuu julkishallinnon muuttuvassa toimintaympäristössä (The liability of civil servants in the changing environment of public administration)

Description

Contribution with information to a report from the Finnish Prime Minister's Office

Liability of civil servants is typically divided into three forms: criminal, civil and
administrative. It is an important means of control for exercising official authority and it is connected to the fact that administration must be based on law. Its ultimate purpose is to strengthen public confidence in the public administration.

In modern public administration, the challenges concerning liability of civil servants are particularly connected to the privatisation and outsourcing, automated decisionmaking and internationalisation. The main observation is that modern public administration seems to require more precisely laid down obligations for action. For example, having sufficiently detailed obligations for action is particularly important as modern administration becomes more networked and involves multifunctional structures. This also enables allocation of responsibilities in automated decisionmaking. In the case of outsourcing, the liability for damages could be clarified if obligations of authorities and responsibilities for organisations were defined more precisely in the State’s operations as well. In addition, the responsibilities of organisations must be developed, for example, by setting precise obligations to the management or by developing sanctions that could be imposed on organisations (corporate fine, penalty fee).

It is important to acknowledge that the operating environment of civil servants also affects the occurrence of errors and omissions.

Period	2022
Work for	Prime Minister's Office (Finland), Finland