Ministerial Advisors
Role, Influence and Management
![image of Ministerial Advisors image of Ministerial Advisors](https://assets.oecdcode.org/covers/100/g2g152a8.jpg)
Government leaders need high-quality and responsive advice to make informed decisions, particularly to help restore long-term economic growth. Indeed, in many countries ministerial advisors are appointed primarily in order to increase the responsiveness of government and help address strategic challenges faced by government leaders. At the same time, their sheer number and the opacity surrounding their status have prompted widespread concern. These are two findings that emerged from an OECD survey in 2010 into the work of ministerial advisors across 27 countries.
This report examines the survey’s findings in order to better understand the important role advisors play and how they are managed. It considers why ministers use their services, how they are appointed, the special status they enjoy, the concerns they have prompted in the general public, and how reform may make them more accountable and improve the transparency of their status.
This report examines the survey’s findings in order to better understand the important role advisors play and how they are managed. It considers why ministers use their services, how they are appointed, the special status they enjoy, the concerns they have prompted in the general public, and how reform may make them more accountable and improve the transparency of their status.
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Are the frameworks governing ministerial advisors sufficient?
Governance frameworks to ensure that ministerial advisors do their work transparently, ethically and accountably are generally limited. In most countries the same standards of conduct apply to public servants as well as ministerial advisors. Thus the standards of conduct do not take into account the political nature of ministerial advisors’ role and related risks.
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