Byron Buckley, News Editor
PATTERSON
DOGGED BY a perception of growing corruption during his 13-year tenure, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson is proposing the retirement of officials in the public interest as one of several measures to arrest unethical behaviour in the public sector.
Mr. Patterson disclosed last week that his administration would be seeking parliamentary approval to amend the Public Bodies and the Corruption Prevention acts to strengthen penalties against ethical misbehaviour by public servants.
"The (Corruption Prevention) Commission has to be vested with greater powers to retire persons in the public interest, if there is a loss in confidence of persons to do their job," the Prime Minister told senior journalists during a briefing at Jamaica House before departing on an overseas mission last Wednesday.
PUBLIC SECTOR AS MAIN PERPETRATOR
His increased vigilance against unethical behaviour in Government comes against the background of strong public perception that corruption has mushroomed under his watch. This has been borne out by findings of a Gleaner commissioned survey conducted by Market Research Services in February. More than 90 per cent of respondents 18 years and over believed corruption had increased during the last five years; more than 70 per cent identified the public sector as the main perpetrator of corruption compared to the private sector.
The proposed amendment to the Corruption Prevention Act will also reduce the categories of public officials the commission is required to monitor, allowing it to focus on officers whose positions expose them to graft. A weakness of the four-year-old Corruption Prevention Act is the large volume of persons required to submit annual declarations of assets to the commission, stretching its resources.
ETHICS OFFICER
In addition, amendments will be made to the Public Bodies Act to facilitate the appointment of ethics officers who will perform an advisory within the public sector. According to the Prime Minister, this is necessary as there is a distinction between ethical misbehaviour and corruption, with the former normally preceding the latter.
Mr. Patterson also expects amendments to the Public Bodies law to prevent officials guilty of unethical behaviour from migrating to other departments or agencies.
One of the ethical breaches raised by the Prime Minister during his recent meeting with reporters is the breaking of the procedures governing the granting of Government contracts. The violation is normally the fragmentation of contracts in small parcels valuing less than $4 million to avoid the scrutiny of the National Contracts Commission. Mr. Patterson says the responsible officials must be sanctioned, including dismissal.
