Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter A RECENT Gleaner-commissioned Don Anderson poll unearthed the fact that 91 per cent of persons 18 years and older believe corruption in Jamaica has increased during the last five-years.
Also, the poll revealed that 70 per cent of those polled thought that corruption was greater in the public sector than anywhere else over the same time frame.
The Sunday Gleaner searched the records for the cases of corruption in recent years which have sent billion of tax dollars down the drain.
SCANDALS
Among the most publicised scandals that have plagued the People's National Party (PNP) administration are the Shell waiver scandal; the zinc scandal; the public sector salaries scandal (fat cat scandal), the NetServ scandal and the Operation Pride scandal.
The Shell waiver scandal, for example, which occurred under the watch of the late Prime Minister Michael Manley, resulted in a $29.5 million waiver on duties to the Shell Company in 1991. This led to the resignation of then finance minister, now Prime Minister, P.J. Patterson from the Cabinet.
In the zinc scandal of 1989, some $500 million of hurricane relief zinc from overseas destined for 'have nots' were diverted to political favourites and
never reached the intended
beneficiaries.
There was also the furniture scandal, which involved more than $10 million being spent to furnish, among other places, a town house for the then Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Ben Clare.
Some $60 million also went down the drain in the public
sector salaries scandal, where a number of top executives of government agencies were paid various allowances above stated guidelines.
However valid or malicious the claims of corruption and careless handling of finances may be, the perception of a few pundits is that the PNP administration has developed a knack of not holding alleged culprits culpable.
"(The PNP has been) ineffective with their handling of allegations of corruption, because if they are not corrupt, they are certainly not doing much about it," said Beth Aub, local watchdog for the Berlin-based corruption watchdogs Transparency International.
RANKING CORRUPTION
Mrs. Aub's view is underscored by the low ratings Jamaica has received in consecutive years on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
The CPI ranks countries based on the perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).
In 2002, Jamaica received a 4.0 rating, which slipped to 3.8 in 2003. In 2004, the CPI ranked a record 146 countries and Jamaica was jointly ranked at 74th, along with Belarus and Gabon, with a score of 3.3.
Mrs. Aub explained that the score of the CPI carries more weight than the ranking. Simply put, on the world stage, the land of wood and water is perceived to be corrupt and that perception is getting progressively worse.
"Where we fall is not a pretty position and we have gone down quite steadily. We are not getting better we are getting worse," said Mrs. Aub.
Jamaica Labour Party spokesman on Finance, Audley Shaw, who blew the whistle in a few of the aforementioned cases, told The Sunday Gleaner that these cases are just the tip of the iceberg.
"The level of corruption in this society doesn't run into thousands, millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. It runs into billions of dollars," said Mr. Shaw.
In an interview with Gleaner Editors in February, Prime Minister Patterson said that his administration has steadfastly implemented anti-corruption measures during his 13-year rule.
Senator Trevor Munroe, professor of government argues, that "In general, the government has done fairly well in setting out legislative framework in dealing with corruption."
However, the Professor conceded that there is "one gaping hole" in the efforts of the Patterson-led administration's fight against corruption.
"There is no law dealing with funding of political parties and financing of political campaigns. This is a very big loophole in the legislative framework," he said.
Professor Munroe reasoned that the clear and present danger associated with the absence of this necessary piece of legislation is the ease with which commercial and criminal money can fund political parties in return for favours.
PASSIVE PUBLIC
While at loggerheads over the government's effort to nip corruption in the bud, all parties found common ground in the argument that allegations of corruption die too soon because the public is too passive with its demands for the truth.
"I think the public has not been sufficiently demanding that the law enforcement agencies get to the root of the allegations as well as they themselves have not been forthcoming with information," argued Professor Munroe.
Mrs Aub advanced the notion that the nation has not received justice because they have not developed the knack of demanding the same.
"The minimum requirement first of all is that the people of Jamaica get irate and demand that someone be held accountable and this must be answered by somebody paying the price," she said.
