Self-study
It is unethical for government officials to use their knowledge of impending policies to financially benefit themselves if that knowledge is not available to the general public.
Summary
Domain: government officials using knowledge of impending policies
Principle: If the knowledge is not available to the general public, and the knowledge is used to financially benefit oneself → unethical
Find or Complete the Application
The correct answer should involve a government official using knowledge of impending policies to financially benefit oneself, and that knowledge is not available to the general public.
25.
Which one of the following ███████ █████ ██ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ██████
a
A company whose ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ███ ███ ██ ███████ ███████ ███ ██ █████████ █████████ ████████ ████ ███ ███████████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████
It’s not clear that the government official who used to work for the company used any knowledge of impending policies to financially benefit himself.
b
A retired high-ranking ████████ ███████ ███ ████ █ ███████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ██ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██████████
This involves use of contacts with department officials. This isn’t use of knowledge of “impending policies.”
c
After a tax ██████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ██████ ████████ █ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ███ ████
This involves using tax shelters alllowed by the new law. This doesn’t involve use of knowledge of impending policies.
d
A Finance Department █████████ ███ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ██ █ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ██████ █ ██████ ███ ████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ████
The government official used knowledge of an impending plan to tax luxury cars. This knowledge wasn’t available to the public (”one of the few people who knew”) and it was used for the official’s financial benefit (”in order to avoid paying the tax”).
e
An official with █ ██████████ ██████ ████ █████████ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ █████████████ ████ ███ ████████ ███████████
This involves an action taken after announcing something to the public. There’s no indication the official used knowledge of an impending policy that was not available to the public.