The truth has finally been told. The royal commission's frank assessment that our police force is prone to corruption from top to bottom is most worrying to the public at large. How can our enforcement officers apply the law if they are not clean themselves?

Enforcement officers working with the public, be it the police force, customs or any government agencies, are prone to solicit bribes to expedite matters. Any businessman or layman would tell you that if the palm is not greased, the file will not move.

This rot has been going on for so long that even the least corrupt officers would succumb to such excuses as 'others are doing it'. It would be darn foolish if they did not accumulate their ill- gotten wealth while they are in a position to do so.

To be fair to our prime minister, he has taken the bull by the horns in addressing this scourge in the public and private sector and at least we now see people who have allegedly abused their power being charged in court for embezzlement and the like.

We should call a spade a spade. Corruption is practiced to enrich oneself, families and cronies. It comes in many disguises; kickback commissions, sexual favours and money politics are all abuses of power. It goes from top to bottom and this culture of bribery has become the norm of society.

The private sector is just as affected as the public sector and one can hear in the streets about politicians, or those with connections to people in power, living an opulent lifestyle not befitting their paycheck.

Hopefully the royal commission's recommendations will be an eye opener for those in power.

Hopefully it will show that in the long run it doesn't pay to get rich through crooked practices, as eventually your crime will catch up with you. There are now cases of people being charged in court for corruption to reinforce this point.

As Rome was not built in a day, let's hope the proposed return to discipline and respectability within our police force will rub off on other government agencies that are prone to corrupt practice.

Hopefully we can eventually reduce or eliminate this scourge, which can only be addressed if the political and moral wills of the population are set against these bad values.