Purpose of this document

1 The State Services Commission (SSC) has prepared this document as the basis for initial discussions with Crown entities about the standards of integrity and conduct that their board members, statutory officers and employees should adhere to. The purpose of the discussions is to:

• enable the State Services Commissioner (the Commissioner) to ascertain what policies and standards on integrity and conduct already apply in the entity, and how they are implemented
• enable the Commissioner to explain his interests in integrity and conduct, and the related principles and preliminary conclusions for the behaviour of Crown entity board members and employees
• discuss those preliminary conclusions with a view to determining what actual standards should apply to the individual entity, taking account of any special circumstances applying to the entity
• work through any differences between existing entity policies and standards, and the standards that emerge through the discussions. It may be sufficient, for example, for an entity to add some detail to its existing standards and to become more proactive in promoting and implementing the standards at all levels in the entity. Issues such as this will be open to discussion.

2 This document:

• provides some background to the Commissioner's role with regard to Crown entity integrity and conduct (part 1)
• describes the scope of the Commissioner's interests in Crown entity integrity and conduct (part 2)
• highlights some considerations for legitimately varying how a particular standard might apply (part 3)
• provides some preliminary thoughts on the type of standards of integrity and conduct that might apply to Crown entities, including variations where appropriate (part 4). This part of the document is unapologetically lengthy: it is necessary to include the information so that entities can properly consider the SSC's questions, and help achieve the objectives of the forthcoming discussions as described in paragraph 1
• asks some key questions that SSC would like to talk through with individual entities during the planned engagement process (part 5).

3 This document does not represent a draft Code of Conduct; it does not contain a draft Code of Conduct. As stated in paragraph 1, it is designed to initiate discussions with individual Crown entities, and their monitoring departments, with a view to establishing what standards of integrity and conduct should apply to the particular entity. Whether the Commissioner eventually issues a Code of Conduct for Crown entities, or several or many Codes, is a second order matter that will become clearer as the discussions progress.