It is a bit disconcerting to frequently hear about public officials being dragged into court for improprieties and other wrongdoings. After all, these are persons in whom the community places its trust and who took an oath to serve the country’s best interest.
To see so many abusing their function and the confidence given to them for personal gain raises questions. Some have even gone so far as to suggest St. Maarten people might perhaps be more dishonest on average than others.
There is obviously neither an indication of nor reason to believe that’s true and these kinds of unfounded generalisations aren’t very helpful. Just like looting after a major disaster, corruption happens practically everywhere.
However, the extent to which it does can depend on a lot of factors. One of these is prevention, or rather the lack thereof.
When reading a few of the related stories one is often left wondering how these irregularities could go undetected and/or unaddressed for so long. The answer is usually ineffective control mechanisms.
In general, checks and balances are no luxury within any organisation, let alone one run by politicians and their administrators. This is evidently an area where there remains much room for improvement.
While every citizen should in principle be counted on to do the right thing and given the benefit of the doubt, taking measures to ensure such is the sensible approach. As the saying goes: Opportunity makes the thief.
