Calls on all Sectors to Place Integrity Central
Over the weekend the Prime Minister of St. Maarten gave an update on the integrity investigations and what is to be expected in 2014 regarding this. The PM stated that the integrity investigation results will be delivered this year. "Integrity is a very broad term and has to be observed in all sectors. Critical to this matter of integrity is for all of us to understand what it we are talking about. Educating the public in all sectors is also very important to integrity. It is not only about the investigation but also about educating the populace and working on changing the negative image.
"We will have these two investigations going on and we will have transparency international carry out their assessment and we will ask ourselves where we are in terms of promoting an open society and educating the people of St. Maarten. It has to do with that level of being a country and are all bared to the rest of the world in terms of what we do and how we do it. We will have obstacles and bottlenecks as we go along but if it makes us a stronger country with better people we will go through that process."
The PM again emphasized that the Government of St. Maarten has integrity programs within the Civil Service and has been working steadily on it, informing civil servants about their obligations and the pitfalls which they may encounter during their work. "We are also focusing on the rules, policy and regulations making them extremely important. Formally it was not that critical as the population was smaller but our community is much more complex right now; diverse persons with their diverse requests making it extremely important to have rules and regulations in place with the necessary checks and balances. In this case we should not forget how important the Ombudsman is in this process. More and more the Ombudsman is being utilized by the population and is also looking at our legislations and laws. Our systems are working, sometimes slower than some would like to see, but they are working. Information to the public of St. Maarten is very important and creating that dialogue is equally important. St. Maarten has come a long way in terms of being vocal within the community. Persons on St. Maarten are now speaking their opinion. I hope that what we will see is an elevation of the level of discussion on St. Maarten. Of course we can be critical but let us keep it at a high level. The kind of attacks that some of our people engage in on websites towards other people is a disgrace. It is good to express your opinion but it needs to be on a certain level and of a certain standard," stressed Wescot-Williams.