News item | 07-11-2023 | 10:55
Participants from organizations from all six islands of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom and from the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) discussed the promotion of expertise during the first ‘Integrity Summit Dutch Caribbean’ in Curaçao from October 30 to November 3.
It has been agreed that there will be a platform for the exchange of best practices and daily experiences with the aim of increasing the level of expertise and promoting cooperation in the field of integrity within the Kingdom.
About 30 participants from 15 different government organizations agreed to set up a platform in which both the autonomous countries and the Caribbean Netherlands participate and in which knowledge and experience are periodically exchanged on promoting integrity within the government, government-affiliated entities and society in general. The emphasis is on promoting expertise from the local organizations involved in this. There will also be a vision for the future for further joint work on integrity in the workplace within government organizations in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.
Speakers were present from the House for Whistleblowers, Red Cross, Amsterdam Integrity Bureau, Nyenrode Business University, the Judicial Institutions Service and the Civil Servant and Organization Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. Former governor and member of the Financial Supervision Board (Cft) Glenn Thodé opened the summit with a speech about Integrity in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom
Share experiences
“The importance of the Integrity Summit cannot be overstated. Finally, there is a meeting of the four countries in the Kingdom with integrity central to the agenda. The residents of the islands in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom yearn for honest administrators, officials and civil servants. For those working to promote integrity, an infrastructure to share knowledge and experiences and to support each other and collaborate is of the utmost importance. Joining forces through this first Integrity Summit gives me hope for a future with more integrity in society,” says Thodé.
Promotion of expertise
The primary purpose of the conference was to get to know each other and to promote expertise among the employees of the integrity agencies of Aruba, Sint Maarten, the public body of Bonaire and the Rijksdienst Caribbean Netherlands, integrity officers, researchers, confidential counselors and of the public bodies of Saba and Sint Eustatius, the Coast Guard-Carib, the Joint Court of Justice Carib, the Public Prosecution Service Carib, Dutch Caribbean Police Force (KPCN), Judicial Institution Caribbean Netherlands (JICN), Kingdom Representative, Royal Military Police (KMar), the Ministry of Administration, Planning and Services and the Ministry of Justice of Curaçao.
Promoting expertise is essential because it is important that the Caribbean part of the Kingdom works on the task of maintaining or maintaining integrity within government organizations. This mainly concerns the extent to which the organizations are able to combat (financial) irregularities (such as fraud and corruption) and undesirable behavior (such as abuse of power, insults, discrimination, intimidation and exclusion), both preventively and reactively.
Organization
The idea for the Dutch Caribbean Integrity Summit arose from a need from the integrity staff in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom itself. The summit was organized by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and SRA-Caribbean & Partners NV, a local agency specialized in training and advice in the field of integrity and compliance.
The summit, which took place for the first time, serves as a stepping stone to a more structural form of cooperation. The organizers speak of a successful week that was received with great enthusiasm.