Howard Walker, Staff ReporterTHE PEOPLE'S National Party (PNP) is finding it difficult shedding the stigma of corrupton which has continued to plague the Government it leads and politics in general.
Speaking at The Gleaner's Editors Forum at the newspaper's North Street office last week, Burchell Whiteman, the party's general secretary said despite the significant number of legislation the Government had passed to identify and deal with corruption in the public sector the perception remains that there was widespread corruption.
"Inevitably the Government gets tainted in that way. We as a party must be concerned," said the Information Minister.
According to Mr. Whiteman, coming out of the party retreat two weeks ago, a decision was taken to lessen the possibility or to eliminate the practices of corruption within the party.
"It might seem simple, but tainted money coming into the party's coffer or people using the party's name improperly to garner funds is very important," he said. "People must be honest in how they call the name of the PNP. This will spill over into other areas of life."
Mr. Whiteman also cited the media as a major player in creating the stigma of corruption. "If certain voices keep claiming that there is corruption in government, people will start believing it even when there is no proof."
But Colin Campbell, one of the party's deputy general secretaries, lashed out at Audley Shaw, the Jamaica Labour Party's spokesman on Finance and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee for creating the corruption stigma.
"Mr. Shaw is the czar in this matter. Most of the times it is duppy stories," said Mr. Campbell. "He made a preposterous allegation two weeks ago that the Government is introducing a legislation to introduce a bound rate on imported cement and that the Government had gone to Trinidad to negotiate a loan.
"If that was true it would be absolute corruption, I would agree. The media just reported it and things like that become part of the database on corruption in Jamaica."
According to him, the PNP has been the party that puts all the legislation in place to deal with integrity. But, he said, there have been "honest mistakes".
"I am not going to say that there is no corruption taking place, I would be stupid and crazy to say that. But I can tell you that where the allegations have been made, the Govern-ment has been quick to make sure that they are properly investigated."
Maureen Webber, a new member of the PNP secretariat said she lost contracts she had for nine years before she became visible in Government. "I myself have gone through accusations and questions of contracts that my private company had and it was very frustrating." "I lost other jobs after it was mentioned in Parliament by Mr. Shaw and nothing was corrupt about the whole process. But because they (media) hear corruption they get excited and jump at it."
