Peter Espeut

When is a donation not a donation? When it is a bribe. What is a donation? A donation is when you give money to a person or organisation to advance or support their activities or objectives which you agree with. What is a bribe? A bribe is when someone gives money to a person or organization that has power, in order to obtain personal or institutional favours or benefits.

Morally, most donations are OK. We give donations to churches and hospitals and NGOs, and we are happy when the poor and the sick are cared for, and when the environment is conserved. But is it morally right to accept money from any and every source? Should Christian churches take donations from the Satanic Union? What about blood money, made from the destruction of human lives? Should Addiction Alert accept financial gifts from the local drug dealer? On the other hand, some gifts are born of a troubled conscience, but they are not bribes.

A bribe

Let us say that I have a company that does business with another company, and at Christmas I give a bottle of Scotch whiskey to the employee of that other company with whom I deal; that is a bribe, and in many countries it is illegal - both for the giver and the receiver. You may see it as a show of appreciation, but others may see it as an effort to keep that client - influence peddling with the employee. I have a friend who was in a procurement position in a large Jamaican company, and over many Christmases he declined all the many such gifts he was offered. Some thought him mad; others a fool; but even today he sleeps well at night.

My friend may indeed be an exception. At Christmas and at other times, there are many people in corporate Jamaica who offer and receive expensive gifts, weekend holidays, flights in private planes and 'loans' and much else. I know one cabinet minister of yesteryear who consistently declined gifts of all-inclusive weekends and thereby became very unpopular.

When it comes to influence peddling, the public sector has learnt well from the private sector. I would like to see a code of conduct adopted by both sectors that would outlaw this kind of corruption, and I would like Jamaica to catch up with elsewhere in the world by making this sort of 'show of appreciation' a criminal offence.

When is a political donation a bribe? When it precedes, accompanies or follows some contract, permit or exemption. There must be people who contribute to their favourite political party because they believe that to have their party in power is in the best interest of the country, or even in their best interest; and that is OK. But if thereby they enhance their ability to obtain some contract, permit or exemption then it is corruption, and should be a criminal offence. The only way to prevent this sort of influence peddling is to make the whole shebang fully transparent: the awarding of contracts, permits and exemptions must be a fully transparent process, and giving political gifts must be fully transparent.

The trouble is that in Jamaica, the whole business of political donations is done in secret. Accountants collude with their clients to keep these 'gifts' off the books. And political organisations co-operate with their benefactors who wish the source of their donations to be secret. Because of the fear of influence peddling, I do not believe that any political donation should be a secret matter.

Fear of bribery

Because of the fear of bribery and corruption, public officials are required to report their income and assets annually; one could then ask questions about any annual jump in assets greater than their annual salary. The trouble is that in Jamaica, the whole business of integrity declarations is done in secret by agreement of both political parties, and those in a position to know if the public official is lying are not allowed to see the list of income and assets.

One of the prices you pay for being a public official is that your affairs come under public scrutiny; this is the price you pay to exercise public power. I do not believe the integrity declaration should be a secret matter. Because of the fear of bribery and corruption, the annual integrity declaration made by public officials should be available for public scrutiny.

Let us help our politicians and public servants not to cross the line. We owe it to them.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.