ETHICAL CODE
of the Czech Statistical Office

The Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) is a central authority, whose principal mission is to produce and disseminate statistical information, which gives a true picture of the economic, social, demographic, and environmental developments of the Czech Republic and its parts. The fundamental principles of its activity, which represents a service to the public, include

-freedom from political interference
-impartiality
-transparency
-credibility.

All provisions and regulations in force for the state administration of the Czech Republic also apply to CZSO employees. The employees carry out their duties in compliance with their contracts of employment. Their mission includes the first-rate execution of the Statistical Service and state administration, also with respect to international standards. The first-rate statistical service, which shall be open, available and correctly functioning, requires that the employee be skilled, impartial, and behave honestly and politely.


Principles of behaviour

CZSO employees shall
-act in accordance with legislation and CZSO internal regulations in force;
-be concerned about their good name as well as good reputation of the Office and the State Statistical Service;
-be concerned about their professional integrity and independence in their work and, therefore, neither use nor support work methods that could produce misleading results or results requested in advance;
-observe principles of impartiality when collecting, processing, analysing, interpreting and publishing data;
-bring confidence and usability limits of released data to the user’s attention.
-be concerned about not causing any misinterpretation of statistical surveys either deliberately or by carelessness;
-act fairly in contacts with other public authorities’ employees, respondents and the public;
-mislead neither the public nor other CZSO employees deliberately;
-carry out duties at a high professional level and deepen knowledge by lifetime devotion to statistics;
-respect the principle of non-discrimination and work without any prejudice;
-act to ensure that financial resources and equipment entrusted to them are administered as economically and efficiently as possible;
-not allow their private interests to get in conflict with the position of the CZSO employee (the private interest being understood as any advantage used to the benefit of their own or of their families, relatives and close persons, and natural and legal persons they have been in business or other relations with);
-not permit in exercising their duties finding themselves in a position which would bound them to repay a favour done to them and shall inform their superiors about any advantage if offered;
-avoid any activities and actions in their private lives, which could undermine the public’s trust in the CZSO;
-avoid any activities or actions irreconcilable with or reducing due performance of their duties;
-not put at risk guarantees of the freedom of the State Statistical Service from political interference, when pursuing political or other public activities;
-apply all measures needed to ensure the protection of personal, sensitive and individual data;
-adhere to the pledge of secrecy.


Relations to respondents

In conducting statistical surveys, CZSO employees shall observe the fundamental principles of:
-not violating respondents’ privacy;
-not burdening respondents with excessive amounts of requested information; and
-informing respondents that the data provided by them are also useful for them and that their confidentiality and anonymity are guaranteed.


Relations to colleagues

CZSO employees shall
-behave helpfully and fairly to each other;
-cooperate in dealing with assignments to achieve the goal as efficiently as possible;
-help young and new employees learn methods and techniques used in the Office and acquire necessary skills;
-be open to reviewing and evaluating their procedures of work in the framework of expert discussions.

Relations of CZSO executives to CZSO employees

In relations to employees, CZSO executives shall
-avoid any discrimination;
-respect rights of the employee as individuality as well as the employee’s right to information;
-enable employees to take part in the decision-making process;
-create conditions for making use of creative potential and skills of employees as much as possible;
-strive for objective appraisal of the performance of individual employees and fair remuneration.


Final provisions

The Code of Ethics is a recommendation to CZSO employees. Its objective is to support desired standards of behaviour and law and order on the one hand and inform the public on the behaviour they can request from the CZSO employee on the other hand.

Adhering to the principles laid down in the Code is part of regular performance appraisals of CZSO employees.