5 June 2012
Later this month, the United Nations celebrates Public Service Day. June 25 will mark the tenth year in which the UN has made awards to nominated practitioners and policy makers, to recognise special endeavour in public service. A Public Service Forum including capacity building workshops will be held concurrently with the gathering of World Leaders in New York, to be followed with an Expert Group meeting on “Preventing Corruption in Public Administration”.
The New Zealand recognition of public service is coordinated by the NZ Institute of Public Administration. On 27 June the IPANZ – Gen-I Public Sector Excellence Awards will be announced. The semi-finalists were selected at a ceremony on 15 May.
Although a number of countries mark the UN Public Service Day, Canada makes a real feast of the anniversary. Under the Serving Canadians Better Act 1992, the third week in June is deemed National Public Service Week. Among the many events programmed in the week 10 – 16 June to mark the occasion, a number of public servants will be announced as winners of the QE11 Diamond Jubilee Medal. These will be among the 60,000 Canadians selected to receive the medal throughout the Queen’s jubilee year. Canada Public Service Awards of Excellence will be made on 11 June. Up to 35 awards are made annually.
Associated events organised by Transparency International are the launch of a Framework for Assurance of Corporate Anti-Bribery Programmes on 21 June, and on 6 June, the release of a study on the causes of corruption in Europe, building on the European Commission’s anti-corruption policy launched this time last year. But more of that on Thursday.