Chris
TuftonIN MAY this year, Prime Minister P. J. Patterson summoned the permanent secretaries of all government ministries to a meeting to discuss incidences of corruption in the public sector. One can conclude from this that the Prime Minister was, and hopefully still is, concerned about the incidences of waste and corruption that havebecome a feature of his administration, and at great cost and concern to the Jamaican public.
The call for this meeting may have been influenced by a World Bank study, published in that same month, looking at levels of corruption in more than 200 countries, as part of an overall governance indicator used to evaluate the performance of governments during the period 1996 to 2004.
This study would have confirmed what many of us suspected for a long time; that corruption in public life is a real and present danger.
The generally accepted definition of corruption is "using public power for private gain" and this World Bank study, based on this definition, concluded that over the last six years there has been a worsening of the government's attempts to control corruption. In fact, the World Bank's Control of Corruption Index shows a decline for Jamaica from 55 per cent in 1998 to 29 per cent in 2004, in comparison to a regional average of over 67 per cent.
PERCEPTION OF CORRUPTION
Given these findings the question must be asked, "Is there a need to re-define public policy in order to more effectively address corruption?" The World Bank certainly thinks so. The Prime Minister might not want to publicly admit it, but his call in May is clearly a demonstration that his government is failing to effectively deal with this issue.
And what of the Jamaican
people, those who have to bear the burden of corrupt practices?
The 2004 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index confirms that as a country, the people are also convinced that we are losing the battle against corruption in public life. On a score of 1-10 where a 10 is least corrupt and a one is most corrupt, Jamaica ranks a mere 3.3 in the year 2004; a failing grade by any standards.
The truth is that we did not have to turn to these international agencies to convince us of this problem. And this is where I take issue with the Prime Minister and his team who, for the most part despite the evidence, are still trying to convince us that
corruption is not as big a problem as most of us believe.
The fact is that if you live in Jamaica today, and are not connected, some would say "genetically connected", and if you are not willing or able to pay to get things done, or make things go away, because as they say "is the runnings", then you are at a distinct disadvantage. This applies in one's personal day to day activities as well as in business. As one minister put it sometime ago, "if you play by the rules you end up getting shafted".
The overwhelming majority of Jamaicans are victims of corruption, the burden bearers of the abuse of public trust. And perhaps in our search for consensus on the urgency and the debilitating impact of corruption on our society we need to spend more time putting in context how acts of corruption in the public sector has impacted the well-being and the quality of life of all of us.
ACTS OF CORRUPTION
Over the last decade and a half, we have seen too many examples of blatant breaches of procedures and abuse of authority, to outright misappropriation of taxpayers' resources. Too often, these acts are explained away and nobody is held accountable.
Among the acts of waste we have seen include the 1989 zinc scandal at a cost of $500 million, 1990 furniture scandal at a cost of $11 million, the 1991 Shell waiver scandal at a cost of $30 million, the 1997 Operation Pride/NHDC scandal at a cost of $5.5 billion, the 2001 Net Serv/Intech Fund scandal at a cost of $1 billion, the 2005 Sandals Whitehouse scandal at a cost of $2 billion and the 2005 National Solid Waste Management Authority scandal at a cost of $2 billion.
And it does not stop there. Daily, acts of what could be described as petty corruption increase the costs and the risk of living in Jamaica.
HARDSHIP INDEX
Every incidence of waste contributes to what I term a hardship index for the average Jamaican.
Lack of amenities in schools, hospitals, and police and fire stations, is partly determined by waste and corruption. The need for school fees and user fees at hospitals are similarly due to waste and corruption.
So to appreciate the true impact of corruption, we should ask ourselves what if these incidences mentioned earlier did not take place, wouldn't we have more resources for our children, our police and nurses, our elderly, our roads. The answer is yes.
So there is no doubt that there is more than enough evidence to support the call for a review and overhaul of the existing policies to address acts of corruption. This is so because this problem is not solely perception, it's a reality, and the impact on the country and its people is severe.
A number of proposals have been put on the table by a number of concerned individuals and groups in the society including Jamaicans for Justice and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Recently the JLP held a press conference and outlined a number of proposals to attack this monster of corruption now in our society. According to the JLP, in charting the way
forward, several issues must be considered:
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS
Firstly, the award of Government contracts must be subject to greater scrutiny and breaches must be subject to more severe sanctions. Currently there is a bill before Parliament tabled by Leader of the Opposition, Bruce Golding, seeking to amend the Contractor-General Act to do just that. These proposals would make it a statutory obligation on the part of public bodies to comply with the established procurement procedures. It makes it unlawful to fragment contracts to avoid the scrutiny of the National Contracts Commission and, importantly, it renders null and void and, therefore, unenforceable contracts that are awarded without the seal of approval of the National Contracts Commission. The Government must move speedily to support the passing of this law.
CORRUPTION PREVENTION COMMISSION
Secondly, the secretariat of the Corruption Prevention Commission is woefully understaffed and ill-equipped to carryout its functions effectively. There should be a fulltime executive commissioner and appropriate qualified support staff to enable that body to pursue more aggressively breaches of procedures by public officials. If the commission is to be effective it must be given the tools to operate.
APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
Thirdly, the Appropriations Committee is a creature of
Parliament and was established to examine current expenditure with the same diligence that the Public Accounts Committee examines past expenditures. It has hardly ever met because it is chaired by a government member and there seems no urgency on the part of the government for it to meet. The Appropriations Committee should be activated and placed under the chairmanship of an Opposition member as is the case with the PAC. In that way many of the irregularities that are taking place could be prevented or discovered before millions of dollars are wasted or stolen.
WHISTLEBLOWER LEGISLATION
Fourthly, there has been public discussion about the need for legislation to protect whistleblowers. This must be supported. We must empower and protect persons who can expose wrongdoing and we must intimidate wrongdoers with the likelihood that their wrongdoing will be exposed and action will be taken.
ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACT
Fifth, we must ensure that the recently introduced Access to Information Act works by ensuring that the capacity is in place to provide information on public bodies on request. Currently, less that 50 per cent of ministries and public bodies are able to provide for requests made. Recently Jamaicans for Justice made a call for the establishment of an index of documents, which the act provides for, to be put in place. This is necessary, as transparency is a deterrent to corruption.
APPOINTMENT OF
BOARD MEMBERS
Sixth, the appointment of board members to public bodies is not open to the scrutiny either by the Parliament or the public. The consequence of this is that there is too much room for manipulation, nepotism, and conflict of interests. There should be a special standing committee of Parliament to which all proposed appointments to public sector boards must by referred. That committee would carefully examine each nominee to satisfy itself that the persons proposed are capable, are persons of integrity and are suitable for the particular appointment. This would ensure that persons are not placed on boards primarily because of their "genetic connections" or personal relationships. The committee would make its recommendations to Parliament and the approval of Parliament would be required before the relevant minister makes the appointments.
PROSECUTOR-GENERAL
Seventh, the Opposition leader has for some time now proposed the establishment of a Prosecutor-General to investigate and prosecute public officials involved in corruption. Strengthening oversight and providing for criminal penalties are critical elements but ultimately it is the probability of being caught and punished that will be the most effective deterrent against corruption. Someone must be charged with the specific responsibility of investigating and prosecuting violations whenever and wherever they occur. Reliance on the DPP and the police who are already overburdened with criminal and civil matters will not provide the effective safeguards that are needed to halt the rot that takes place in public administration. A Prosecutor-General with constitutional authority and protected from direction or influence from any source and to whom information concerning wrongdoing can be directly transmitted is something that would act as a deterrent to corruption.
The fact is that these reform proposals requires political will and are only meaningful if the Government enforces the law. Its time to act and act decisively!
Dr. Chris Tufton is a JLP senator, president of Generation 2000 (G2K) and caretaker for SW St. Elizabeth. Email comments to cctufton@yahoo.com
