L’esposizione precoce alla cultura dell’integrità come strumento di prevenzione e contrasto alla corruzione

Abstract

Considering that unethical conduct underlies all types of corruption, and focusing on corruption mainly as a cultural issue, an effective strategy of fighting corruption cannot disregard the cultural dimension: education and training on ethics and integrity is in fact crucial for strengthening the culture of integrity.

Professional training on prevention of corruption is therefore key, both as an explicit anticorruption measure and an instrument to raise awareness on this issue. However, professional training of civil servants involves people who have already developed their ethical perception and may hence be affected by the cultural, social, economic context. For this reason, ethics, integrity and anti-corruption values should be imparted in schools, in order to empower skills enabling students (potential civil servants in the future) to respond in an ethical way when confronted with an ethical dilemma and to detect conflict of interest, discretion or other ethical blind spots.