Compliance in der öffentlichen Verwaltung

Abstract

Compliance refers to the regulations in the organization of companies that are intended to enable them to better control the risks associated with rule violations by their employees. The term only found its way into German debates around the turn of the millennium. Since then, various standards have emerged for so-called compliance management systems (CMS), which are implemented into the company organization in order to prevent violations or at least enable their subsequent detection and prosecution. So far, the area of public administration has largely been left out of this discussion, with the exception of public companies. Public action is constitutionally bound by the law, so why should there be a need for a debate about preventing rule violations? The answer is: because empirical administrative research has repeatedly shown that employees in public administration do not always apply the law correctly and that compliance with the law can be ensured through organizational measures. This is what this article is about. Among other things, the question raised is whether the constitution obliges authorities to create effective compliance structures in order to prevent violations of the law; not only in the area of administrative units organized under private law, but also in the classic hierarchical areas of public administration.