Editorial: Departure policy
POSTED: 09/9/14 11:10 PMThe parliamentary year 2013-02014 closed without any fireworks, or it must be the motion departing DP-faction leader Roy Marlin tabled.
That motion urges the prime minister to inform the members of her cabinet not to do anything that would encumber the work for the new government.
While the request seems logical, it is also a bit of a no-brainer. Ministers who do favors in the last weeks of their tenure ought to know that they could be held personally liable for any financial consequences. This so-called “departure-policy” is a well-known phenomenon and all governments that ever left office in St. Maarten have practiced it.
It is time for this, sometimes costly, form of favoritism to come to an end and today is as good a day as any other to begin with it. If the new government lives up to expectations and delivers on its promises of transparency and integrity, all these actions will become visible in the future – and that seems the best method to stop ministers from undertaking actions they may come to regret.
