Finance Minister Paula Cox's announcement last night that Government is considering cracking down on employers who fail to pass on pension and payroll tax deductions is welcome news.

The primary weapon being considered would apparently make it clear in law that directors and officers who retain these funds will be held personally liable for them, even if the companies they own and run go bankrupt.

This is a bold step, not least because some will see it as an infringement on the principle of limited liability, which is, in many ways the legal bedrock of a free enterprise society.

Without limited liability, the owners of businesses could be pursued "down to the last cufflink", to borrow a phrase for any and all debts a bankrupt company incurred.

That's dangerous because it would make most investors so fearful of investing in any kind of venture that no one would ever form a company, the primary engine of wealth for all in a free market society.

However, limited liability has never applied to theft from a business, or any other breaches of the law. If a company retains things like pension deductions when all they are supposed to do is pass them from the employee to Government or a private pension fund, then that surely is theft and should be treated as such.

It is quite possible that Government could pursue prosecutions on that basis now, and it is somewhat disappointing that it has not done so. But Ms Cox's proposal deserves praise. At least she and Attorney General Sen. Larry Mussenden are thinking about the issue, which is more than some of their colleagues would like them to do.

Still, it's a long way from words to action, and Ms Cox is far too canny a politician to come out and say that this legislation is about to go to Parliament.

Nor would she say that, for example, Tourism Board chairman Andre Curtis, whose former company owes almost half a million dollars in deductions, is the reason for this burst of thinking, not least because her Cabinet colleague and Deputy Premier Ewart Brown seems to see nothing wrong with Mr. Curtis' behaviour.

Similarly, Ms Cox deserves credit for commissioning the governance review of the administration of the Island's public pension funds.

But when she commissioned the report, she again did not have it look at the allegations made against Dr. Brown and Public Funds Investment Committee chairman Calvin White, whose alleged actions sparked the entire controversy.

And when asked her views on their alleged actions, she dodged the question, except to say that even if the allegations were true, they were not illegal under current law. She then neatly kicked the question up to Premier Alex Scott, who has, as this newspaper reports today, maintained a stony silence on the questions.

That's a shame. Mr. Scott has called on his Ministers and officials to maintain the highest level of integrity. But when he is asked to back his words with deeds he disappears.

That, sadly, is a hallmark of this administration. It talks the talk, but rarely walks the walk.