• Ensuring that said training focuses specifically on compliance with codes of ethics in force and on the risks of corruption. f) To strengthen the bases for managing public integrity in government institutions by adopting measures to build • Appointing authorities or public officials in charge of implementing up the institutional role of the body in charge of public said codes and training programs. integrity, guaranteeing that it benefits from the necessary budget to autonomously discharge its duties. b) To implement mechanisms to ensure that the staff receives from their institutions, on an ongoing basis, clear g) To efficiently move forward in drawing up and using instructions about the performance that is expected of basic instruments to promote ethics in government them, the obligations pertaining to their posts, as well as employment such as, for example, general and information and guidelines about the ethical duties they are institutional codes of ethics and integrity plans, programs, required to fulfill by doing the following: or strategies in every government institution. • Delivering handbooks, guidelines, or other kinds of instruments h) To adopt, implement, and provide transparency to and modern technologies providing guidance to civil servants on an equitable remuneration system for public officials how to adequately perform their duties and warning them of the risks which provides adequate merit-based incentives that of corruption pertaining to the discharge of their responsibilities, as allow advancement and overcome existing salary well as the scope and interpretation of the ethical norms governing discrepancies in the civil service based on impartial and their activities and the consequences of failing to observe these transparent criteria. norms for the civil service and for the offenders. • Adopting induction and re-induction programs for their civil servants, regarding their responsibilities in their posts and on the In short, over the past two decades, MESICIC has made ethical norms that are applicable to them, using current codes of recommendations that focus sharply on transparency in the ethics and modern technologies especially for this purpose. mechanisms to hire and promote public officials, to build capacities for the management of integrity for and in government agencies, • Transmitting guidelines from the leading body in charge of the to enforce integrity norms and mechanisms for authorities and civil service, in order to ensure that the institutions governed by the senior officials, to strengthen the professional development of civil civil service system provide their staff with consistent information servants, and to improve information and guidance on integrity about their responsibilities and ethical duties. and civil service. The recognized follow-up mechanism for the first international c) To ensure that senior authorities adequately know and treaty against corruption has carried out technical monitoring work understand the norms, instructions, and guidelines on over a long period of time to mainstream legal reforms and draw public ethics that are applicable to them and monitor the up policies on integrity in public functions. In addition, the OAS has effectiveness of activities for that purpose. promoted, in its many forums and resolutions, a direct connection between civil service and integrity, as in the “Guidelines for the Management of Policies for Probity in the Public Administrations of the Americas (2017),” which called upon states to manage d) To ensure that every public official can receive and policies for probity on the basis of a series of guidelines focusing request information and guidelines about ethical norms on formal and informal mechanisms that have an impact on the and duties, as well as answer queries about the scope and rules of conduct of public officials relative to appropriate behavior interpretation of said norms. in public administrations. As for the Summit of the Americas, it has been a high-level political forum which, on a permanent basis since 1994, has been promoting probity and combating corruption. The hubs of action of the Lima Summit described in the present e) To require institutions belonging to the executive section show the very close linkage between legally binding branch of government to report annually on the activities commitments between the states parties to the IACAC and the carried out to ensure their staff adequately understand the international policy mandates and commitments promoted by the responsibilities of their position and their ethical duties, so OAS and the process of the Summits of the Americas to promote, that the state can duly examine and assess those activities in the Hemisphere, policies that mainstream and strengthen the and ascertain whether or not they are adequate. linkage between probity and the civil service. Cultivating a culture of integrity in the civil service in times of crisis 22