Public Servants urged to be careful when posting statements in social media
PUBLIC officers have been cautioned about exposing government’s confidential information and raising serious allegation over the social media.
Permanent Secretary (PS) for the Ministry of Public Service Nego Sisiolo in an interview with the Solomon Star on Tuesday warned public servants to be careful when posting statements in the social media for public debate, adding it may distort the image of the government and its line ministries.
Mr Sisiolo said while individuals have the freedom to express themselves they should be reminded that it is under strict rules for a public officer to make statements of information revealing confidential facts about the work of some government offices.
The PS added public service has the rules and protocols when disseminating information to the mainstream media, and this should be also applied in social media.
Mr Sisiolo expressed concern and fear over the impact of social media, where many public officers today used it as their medium of discussion to debate in online forums.
He highlighted that some issues of debate in public forums such as the Forum Solomon Islands International (FSII) shows public servants positing comments bearing serious allegations on some public offices.
“While we appreciate public servants to raise their frustrations on issues of concern to tax payers, they have to be cautious as well on information that could better reserved as confidential, rather than putting them out in public forum, which could be detrimental to the integrity of government offices,” he added.
Mr Sisiolo reminded public servants they must always have the sense of care and responsibility when participating in online forum discussions.
“Because some of the comments could be deemed violating the public service norms and protocols, particularly on controversial issues of serious corruption allegations.”
By AATAI JOHN
