Leadership and integrity

Today’s problem with leadership is not that our leaders lack intelligence, experience or money, it is because they lack transparency and accountability. Even more so they lack integrity.
These are the three big words leaders use all the time but fail to live by. I urge leaders to think seriously. No amount of money, resources, experience and intelligence will change this country if the leaders mandated to serve the country and its people are living double standards, both in the public and private sector.
A person with integrity has a life that is driven by his or her moral and ethical values. He or she lives what he or she preaches. The leader is believable and is trustworthy because he or she lives by his or her word and his or her life is the testimony itself.
We need leaders with integrity.
We as a people measure our lives against the standards of integrity required to genuinely, sincerely and without being selfish serve our families, communities, our country and our people.
In Papua New Guinea, mandated leaders spend at their discretion within their electorates at the expense of underfunded government departments. Ministers pay little attention to government departments. Bureaucrats are not subjected to political pressure to improve. They are neglected and demoralised.
The poor maintenance of organisational integrity emanates from the lack of leadership integrity. This leads to poor governance and impedes upon legitimate government business, and as a result the delivery of services is affected.
We need integrity at the leadership levels of both politics and bureaucracy. We must all encourage each other to live and measure up to the standards of integrity.

Dr Samuel Maima
MD Medline Pacific