Last Wednesday, members from the public and private sectors joined forces to fight corruption during a workshop titled ‘Towards Integrity in Aruba’ in the ballroom of La Cabana Resort & Casino.
The workshop was presented by Stichting Deugdelijk Bestuur Aruba (Aruba Good Governance Foundation) in collaboarion with Aruba Institute for Good Governance and Leadership from the University of Aruba, Saxion Hogeschool and HopeAruba Movement Foundation.
Mr. Armand Hessels from the Stichting Deugdelijk Bestuur Aruba inaugurated the morning explaining the process that is going on, from a few years already, to finally reach a National Integrity System (NIS) Assessment for Aruba, and also expressed his enthusiasm to see a workshop related to integrity become a reality.
During the session, dr. Willeke Slingerland from Saxion Hogeschool, as main research for this project, presented the conclusions and recommendations of the NIS report for Aruba, which was published last april.
Participants in the workshop, who represented various sectors of our community, had the opportunity to share their thoughts regarding practical ways in which integrity can be stimulated and fortified in Aruba on the social, political, cultural and economic fields. Some important points which were brought forward were the need to create more awareness and education in our community on the topic of integrity and the consequences of corruption; the possibility of fortifying the code of conduct in the public and private sectors; and also the desire to see more transparency combined with an exemplary conduct from our leaders and rulers in our community.
In the following months, more workshops will be organized to expand in each fundamental area of the NIS report (social, political, cultural and economic). With these steps, the desire is to manage to concretize the collective recommendations and achieve a specific plan of action that can be carried by a wide basis in our country.
The organizers of the workshop are happy to see the great interest from various stakeholders in our community that also chose to stand up, use their voices and take responsibility as active citizens on our island.
