Vernon Daley, Staff ReporterThink about this.
The company you work for has closed down and a family friend suggests you should take the $1 million pay-off you received to an investment firm. You agree.
But before acting on the suggestion, wouldn't you try to find out something about the investment company? Chances are you would check whether the firm is properly registered and has a good reputation in financial management. Also, you would perhaps want to be sure that the firm is not involved in any illicit or corrupt financial activities that could undermine its ability to manage your money.
Well, shouldn't that same scrutiny apply to political parties?
The fact is that under our political arrangement, the party that controls the Government is usually responsible for multi-billion dollar national budgets, made up of taxes as well as loans, grants and revenues acquired in the name of citizens.
However, local political parties which vie for the power to control such massive resources and make crucial decisions about national affairs, remain unregulated and rely largely on private contributions to run their election machinery.
This dependence on private funding is a major potential source of corruption, which can put parties at the mercy of their donors and compromise their ability to administer the resources of the state properly and fairly .
For years there have been charges that Governments dole out benefits to large business interests and friends who contribute to their campaigns. The matter is made worse by allegations that proceeds from drug running in the island are finding their way into the financing of party candidates.
Professor Trevor Munroe, Independent Senator, says this public perception of growing corruption in politics, arising from the funding of political parties, could erode the island's democracy and weaken the state.
The end result is likely to be a further decline in voter participation, less respect for political authority and an increase in lawlessness. Essentially, the consequences are real.
Figures released by officials of the two main political parties - People's National Party (PNP) and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) - suggest that the campaign for the upcoming general election could cost between $360 million and $600 million. This, by any estimate, is a massive sum for a general election but is in keeping with the steady increase world over in the cost of political financing.
"Where is all this money coming from?" Professor Munroe asked.
The Independent Senator has moved a resolution in the Senate calling for the establishment of a broad-based national commission, to examine and make recommendations for registering political parties and providing them with public funding to counter the threat of corruption. The resolution is expected to be debated shortly.
There are now no requirements for a party to be registered and file statements of its accounts. This, Professor Munroe noted, is an oddity, when it is considered that trade unions as well as local businesses have to meet these basic requirements. It is even more shocking, given the critical role of political parties to a democracy.
The parties are seeking funding primarily from three sources - dues, fund-raising activities and private contributions. However, the largest portion of the funding comes from contributions.
Maxine Henry-Wilson, general-secretary of the PNP, concedes that there are some people who contribute to the parties, expecting to reap some political benefit down the road.
"Some contributions are given...to influence decision-making," she told The Sunday Gleaner in a recent interview.
However, like Christopher Bovell, treasurer of the JLP, she insists that her party has never favoured anyone because that person made a contribution to it.
Even if the parties are taken at their word, it still does not change the dangerous public perception that political leaders are dishing out contracts and other political benefits to their friends and contributors.
It's for this reason that reasonable people both inside and outside of the political parties are embracing the view that the society needs to pick up part of the bill for political financing while putting in place requirements for parties to disclose private contributions.
Bruce Golding, former president of the National Democratic Movement (NDM), is an ardent advocate of state funding for parties. He would like to see the state make contributions to parties in areas such as political advertising. Advertising in the print and electronic media in the lead-up to the elections usually accounts for the largest share of the parties budget.
If Jamaica were to enact legislation to regulate political parties and provide state funding for political parties, it would merely be playing catch up with several other countries around the world which have already moved in that direction.
Both Commonwealth and non-Commonwealth countries have employed different methods to finance political parties, including grants to legislators, tax relief to contributors, free broadcasting and other kinds of subsidies.
The United States Senate, for example, on March 20, approved amendments to campaign finance laws aimed a curbing the influence of big money in American politics.
Under the United Kingdom laws, parties have to be registered and there is a cap on the contributions from individuals and corporate entities. Also, the UK bans anonymous contributions.
Professor Munroe supports the idea of banning anonymous donations and thinks it should be implemented here. Secrecy in political contributions, he says, helps to undermine democracy.
But it's not the first time the subject of political financing has occupied our attention. We have been debating the issue of financing for political parties for many years.
There has been the suggestion in the past that Government should provide constituency offices which would be used by sitting MPs. However, that proposal along with calls for a new Parliament have fallen by the wayside due to political expediency and pandering to the crowd.
However, with the evident threat to our democracy from big moneyed interests, including those involved in drug running, there can be no disunity in the society this time around about the need for the state to provide meaningful political financing and hold political parties to greater levels of transparency and accountability.
