One of my recommendations was that certain rules be established with regard to the behaviour of political staff. According to the information I have, there exists no such thing at the present time. There is no code of conduct, no training offered to these people. As a rule, these people are recruited after an election among the staff that helped the individual in question get elected. Naturally, they have a certain preference for their employer, but they nevertheless fill political positions.
I have nothing whatsoever against politicians or those who work for them, but I feel that they often do not have the training and are not aware of what an appropriate rule of conduct might be. For example, when a member of the public service receives a phone call from a person who identifies her or himself as being part of the Prime Minister's Office and who requests certain information, the civil servant would have great difficulty in telling the person to mind his or her own business and to no longer call in the hope of exercising some influence. That is virtually impossible. In my view, there should be a rule prohibiting any such phone calls.