COMMENT | Every time news reports of the government or its employees being held liable for damage, injuries, or death through their actions or inaction, we sit back and say: “There we go again.”

Whether it is medical negligence, custodial deaths, or planned cheating or fraud in the case of land transfers, the government ends up paying millions in compensation due to the principle of vicarious liability.

Taxpayers cringe at the thought that their hard-earned money is being used to pay for the wrongdoing of a few.

The perpetrators walk free, perhaps with a tap on the wrist, or even promoted. No remorse, no apology, as they believe they did not wrong, thinking they were carrying out their lawful responsibilities as a servant of the government.

But yesterday’s decision by the High Court to award RM1.1 million in damages to the mother of Dutch model Ivana Esther Robert Smit, whose nude body was found on the sixth-floor balcony of a condominium here eight years ago, is nothing less than an indictment of our police force and the enforcement of law and order.