Bryan
Lavern Clarke, Staff Reporter
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES carried out by community-based organisations are inherently corrupt, Social Development Commission (SDC) boss, Robert Bryan, said last week. He was speaking at a breakfast meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica on Friday.
The SDC, as an interventionist agency, works with communities in Jamaica to help them develop along structured lines; part of that involves setting up the framework for dialogue with those who govern.
"Many of the specific corrupting influences that have taken place, certainly of the political nature, have become fairly institutionalised with their own philosophical framework that justifies the actions that we see out there," said Mr. Bryan. In painting a picture of a state apparatus that has become unresponsive to the needs of Jamaicans over time, he said communities have charted their own development agenda by setting up parallel social, justice and economic systems through which they manipulate the state and its agencies.
"It provides a very significant foundation for them to survive economically, and in many respects, some of the criminal networks have become partners of the state through contracts, which makes the problem that much more difficult to resolve," said Bryan.
Mr. Bryan's take on the issue flows from analyses done by the SDC on the breakdown in governance, especially at the local level, and what is needed to fix it. It also comes against the background of continuing insistence by the Government that while there are some systemic weaknesses, there is no evidence of rampant corruption within the 14-year Patterson administration.
"I think a lot of persons are in denial about the problems, but we are not," said Bryan. "We can't afford to be," he told The Sunday Gleaner, in commenting on his statement against the background of past dismissal of the issue.
Noting that other agencies were also facing the matter more squarely, the SDC boss said it had to be done if Jamaica was to deal effectively with sustainable development.
At least two Government members National Security Minister, Dr. Peter Phillips, and more recently, Foreign Affairs State Minister, Senator Delano Franklyn have appealed to politicians to disassociate themselves from criminal elements. But until now, there has been no public admission of a link between the state and criminals.
Bryan said the systemic decline has also resulted in the non-participation of large groups in the affairs of the country. There are 745 communities across Jamaica which the SDC has broken down into 70 development areas.
Each development area, 12 of which are in Kingston and St. Andrew, has its own settlement and land use patterns, and are driven by different economic activity. And, they "all require specific arrangements to facilitate the management of their affairs."
"The communities are all part of an overall system of governance and, therefore, they require service delivery such as garbage collection, drain cleaning and roads," Bryan told The Sunday Gleaner.
"The mechanisms that have been established to provide those things over time have become non-responsive they are dominated by political decision-making and partisan politics and that, over time, has affected the consistency of development and created a systematic problem."
Noting that the Parish Councils are a shadow of what they used to be, Bryan said the solution was not to disband the local structure, but to strengthen their management capabilities.
