‘Process’ is the word of 2026

Again and again this year, the real story behind the “hot button issues” has not been one single decision or one single person. It has been the process, or the lack of it. You see it in VROMI matters. You see it in the drama around the Central Bank board. You see it very clearly now in the taxi and bus license affair. At the core of each case is the same question: was the process that exists on paper actually followed in practice.

This is where the public needs to pay very close attention and not be drawn into the sensational. It is also where those who know better, inside the system and outside, have a duty to speak honestly.

Since a now famous list of names of people who received taxi and bus licenses over many years became public, an impression is being created that all of those licenses were obtained illegally, outside of due process. That is not accurate. It is important to separate three different things: what is legal, what is political, and what is ethical.

For decades, many people have believed that taxi and bus licenses were sometimes used as political favors. Supporters, relatives, family friends. That kind of patronage may be questionable. It may feel unfair. It may very well be unethical. But as the law stands, it is not automatically illegal if the formal procedure was followed, the criteria were met, and the license was properly registered and paid.

Minister of TEATT Grisha Heyliger Marten has stated that her inquiries into the issuance of licenses also looked at the tenure of former TEATT ministers Ludmila de Weever and Roger Lawrence, and that in those periods the process was followed. The chain of oversight remained in place and files can be found in the system. Moreover, some are criteria-based re-issuance, which can be mistaken as a new license being granted.

The current situation described around bus and taxi licenses is of a different order. According to the Minister’s presentation and to the reports now in the public domain, there are licenses that cannot be found in the digital system, fees that do not appear to have reached government, a chain of command that was not respected, and internal warnings from department heads that were reportedly ignored. On top of that, both the Integrity Chamber and SOAB have documented serious procedural failings in 2023.

There is a temptation in our politics to answer every concern about today with a story about yesterday. The moment someone raises questions, the response is often, “Yes, but what about when so and so was there” even if that was ten or twenty years ago. It is a reflex that many of us know well. It makes it easier to avoid accountability when the issue is in our camp, or involves someone we like or support. That habit muddies the waters, intentionally. It turns every discussion into a comparison of past wrongs instead of an honest look at whether the rules were followed 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 time. And it keeps us locked in the same cycle, where no one truly learns anything and no standard is ever fixed.

This is why the clean up that Minister Heyliger Marten has started is important, and also why it needs to be treated with care and consistency. If the system is going to draw a line and say from this point forward process must be respected, then that line has to mean something. It cannot move depending on which party is in office or which names appear on a list.

In the end, let us be very clear: Even when licenses were issued by the book, using them as political rewards has damaged trust and should lead to tighter rules, not denial. If the rules or their application favor insiders, they must change, but without a clear process there is no fair way to fix anything, and without personal integrity it's a moot point. The SOAB and Integrity Chamber reports are not perfect, but they are serious warnings, and the answer to any doubt about them is more openness and facts, not giving up on process itself.

At some point, the culture has to change and the process has to matter.

At some point personal integrity is expected, it can't be legislated.

If that moment is now, let it be now.