Government needs a clear social media and professional conduct policy for civil servants

Dear Mr. Editor,

Some people will not take this letter well. Some will deliberately misread it, misunderstand it or twist the intention behind it. That is expected. But there is something happening regularly in St. Maarten that deserves a serious discussion: Government employees using social media to continuously tear down the very Government they work for, sometimes even attacking the department or service in which they themselves are employed.

Nobody is saying that becoming a civil servant means surrendering your right to have an opinion. Civil servants are citizens too. They vote, they pay taxes, they have families affected by Government decisions and they have every right to be concerned about the direction of their country.

But freedom of expression is not the end of the discussion.

When you accept public employment, you also accept responsibilities that ordinary members of the public do not have. You are paid from the public purse to help Government function. You may have access to information the public does not have. You are part of the machinery responsible for delivering the very services you might be criticizing.

I looked at St. Maarten's Landsverordening materieel ambtenarenrecht, the LMA, which governs civil servants. The law does not contain a simple section saying that a civil servant cannot criticize Government on Facebook. But it does establish obligations that are relevant to what I'm saying.

Article 44 requires a civil servant to perform the duties of the position carefully and diligently and to behave as a good civil servant should. It also requires civil servants to comply with rules established regarding their work and conduct. The LMA goes further. Civil servants have confidentiality obligations concerning information acquired through their positions, and they are prohibited from misusing information obtained through their employment.

The law also establishes an integrity structure. Government is required to promote proper official conduct, raise integrity awareness, prevent abuses and maintain a code of conduct. Civil servants who have reasonable grounds to suspect an integrity violation are provided with an internal procedure through which concerns can be reported.

There is a difference between exposing wrongdoing and spending your days publicly ridiculing your employer. There is a difference between raising a legitimate integrity concern and repeatedly telling the public that your own department is useless, incompetent or incapable of functioning. If something improper is happening inside Government, report it. Use the mechanisms that exist. If those mechanisms do not work, that itself becomes a legitimate matter for public discussion.

But we should stop pretending that every social media post made by a Government employee automatically becomes untouchable because someone shouts "freedom of speech."

St. Maarten's Constitution protects freedom of expression. It also recognizes that rights carry legal responsibilities. Freedom of expression does not mean freedom from every consequence connected to your professional obligations.

The bigger question is why Government allows this behaviour to continue unchecked.

Government spends considerable time talking about integrity, professionalism, customer service and rebuilding confidence in the public sector. Yet the public can go online and sometimes see Government's own employees helping to destroy that confidence.

Imagine being a resident who has to visit a department tomorrow after reading an employee of that same department online telling everyone how badly it functions. Why should that resident have confidence that his application will be handled properly?

It also creates problems inside the workplace. Morale suffers. Relationships between colleagues deteriorate. Managers lose authority. Employees begin choosing sides. Internal disagreements become social media entertainment. The institution starts looking dysfunctional before the public even walks through the door.

And there is another uncomfortable question. If someone truly believes that the department in which he or she works is hopeless, corrupt, useless or incapable of doing anything properly, how does that attitude affect the person's own work?

Government cannot demand professionalism from employees at the counter from 8:00am to 5:00pm and act as though what those same employees publicly do to the reputation of their department every evening is completely unrelated.

If Government is serious about improving public confidence, then it needs a clear, fair and legally sound social media and professional conduct policy for public servants, one that protects legitimate expression and whistleblowing while establishing boundaries for conduct that damages the public service.

Rights matter. So do responsibilities. And when you work for the people, both should matter every day.

Concerned Citizen

(𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫 - 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦’𝘴 𝘛𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴. 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘯 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳. 𝘐𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳’𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘞𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘺, 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦.)

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