“Integrity is a team effort, not just the work of a single person” ~Kajiman Rai, Integrity Icon 2019

It takes more than one person to promote, maintain and preserve integrity. Sometimes you have to go above your TOR, and if your team is not ready to work with you, it gets difficult to walk this path alone. Kajiman Rai, an Integrity Icon from Nepal for 2019, took the initiative to lead the summit with his own principles on what it takes to walk on the path of integrity. His strong words became the root that generated debate around how to institutionalize integrity to support good governance practices in Chulachuli Rural Municipality.

Bureaucrats, local representatives, media, and concerned people joined the conversation to show their support on the words of the Integrity Icon. Dhirendra Sharma (Secretariat Member), Pradip Chandra Rai (Chairperson, Chulachuli Rural Municipality) and Nirmala Dahal (Vice- chairperson, Chulachuli Rural Municipality) led the decision-making part of the summit by providing motivation for integrating integrity as a development-tool in the municipality.

Highlights:

Individuals need to build institutional integrity so that even when they leave an institution, the good work continues.

“Corruption is not only about money. Corruption also happens when a teacher is not able to show the proper way for their students.’ ~Kamal Prasad Adhikari, Principal Kirateshwor Secondary School

More than money, a person’s mindset can become a major factor in building corruption and other unlawful and incorrect practices in society. For example, if a doctor becomes corrupt, their patients are at risk of losing their life due to that doctor’s unethical behavior. Another example is a corrupt teacher; when a teacher becomes corrupt, he or she’s beahvior affects an entire generation of children.

When there is integrity there is a trust – Purna Lawoti, Ward Secretary

In order to become successful, a person needs to have integrity. Integrity is needed to achieve success.  Every sector, every position, whether it’s government or private, everyone needs to maintain integrity in order to make “samridha nepal sukhi nepali”.

Integrity starts from your own home – Dhirendra Sharma, Secretariat Member

Everyone should wake up with an optimistic mindset. Instead of asking ‘why’, people should be telling themselves ‘why not?’. Being honest and true to oneself not only increases the chances of building your personal integrity, but also brighten up one’s day.
Also, your needs should be prioritized. For example, if you want to avoid work for a day because you felt cold in the morning, or something – then you should think twice before doing anything important. One should always be ready to go out and fulfil your commitment, even when it seems impossible.

Follow our commitments – Pradip Chandra Rai, Chairperson, Chulachuli Rural Municipality

We will follow the value commitments that we have worked on during the Summit. And will display this at our work stations so that service seekers – the public – can see what we have promised.

Signing up for our co-created value commitments after hearing great speakers give life to the entire theme of the conference. The impact of the conference and our speakers could be seen on the faces of attendees.

Sheena Adams