Editorials

"An Informed Voter Is The Best Defense Against Bad Government"

"Fiduciary Duty"

By Donald E. Roberts, Jr. - April 5, 2003

Public officials like to toss out words and terms and use them as they will. Fortunately for the rest of us, words don't mean, as the red queen suggests, exactly and only what politicians want them to mean.

 

"Fiduciary duty" is one of those terms that public officials use, misuse, and abuse.  Frequently, public officials will cite the government's "fiduciary duty" to support program cuts or limit funding.

 

But "fiduciary duty" goes beyond having a clean bottom line and ensuring that expenses don't exceed revenues. Fiscal responsibility is only a part of fiduciary duty.

 

The fiduciary responsibility of the government and of government officials is to act in the best interest of the people. Fiduciary duty is an obligatory bias.

 

Fiduciary responsibility trumps party loyalty and personal interests. Politicians who simply vote the party line or submit to political bullying are not doing their duty. 

                                                                                                           

Fiduciary duty also trumps government interests.  The government may not want to be troubled by certain inconveniences such as elections or public hearings but these are in the public's best interests so we get to keep them.

 

"What is in the public's best interest?" is the most important question a public official must answer and should be the first. It should be the dominant theme of all public policy and legislation.

 

 

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