Who's Got Their Finger In The Cookie Jar?

Today's Advocate editorial makes for very interesting reading. Under its catchy title of "Stop the rot", it celebrates the fact that December 9 is International Anti-Corruption Day by warning that Barbados should not get beyond itself by thinking that it does not have a problem with corruption. I imagine that most people who pay attention to things like Transparency International's corruption perception index understand its severe limitations. Not only does it not measure actual corruption, but it also does not look at perception beyond the public sector. So, you could have a country known to be rampantly corrupt, but if most of that is within the private sector and the public sector does enough to disguise what corrupt practices it has, then the country could score with low perceptions of corruption. Lies, lies, and damned statistics, indeed. But, let us first find corrupt practices and then move to see what if anything will be done about them.

I would be lying if I said that I was not disappointed with the slowness with which the government has proceeded with integrity, transparency and accountability legislation. Deliberations are all well and good but how much deliberation is really needed to move in these areas. Barbados is by far not the first country to move on these areas. It is also a small country. Some argue that the same smallness is one of the factors braking progress. Everyone is supposedly known to everyone that the prospect of fessing up on a relative, friend or colleague who has been dipping the finger into the sugar bowl is close a move for permanent social ostracism.

The Auditor General's (AG) Barbados Audit Office has produced another unflattering report on Barbados' public sector contracting, monitoring and implementation, with its Special Audit of the Barbados Road Network Infrastructure Improvement Project. The report identifies many areas where government departments, in this case the Ministries of Transport and Works and Finance, did not seem to be fully in control of a project for which they were responsible.

The report indicates many areas where these public agencies displayed irregularities in their procedures regarding competitive bidding and contract awarding; contractual arrangements were weak; they did not have full control over projects, or did not appear to fully understand the projects and the rules under which they operated. Work begun without full designs and thus full costing information. That the completion of the highway project is dragging along like a tattered bag perhaps sounds harsh, but after living through it for the past three years I would argue that it is fair.

The AG’s role and function, however, is not to provide solutions though its recommendations may form their basis. It presents information to Parliament, and it’s for the Public Accounts Committee to take matters forward, or not. The AG has already indicated that the latter has not been functioning properly. But in no sense can the AG’s office just decide to go off and do more than what it’s charged to do. So, we look to Parliament for having been derelict in its duties. We have to ask why, given the it's the public's money that they should be concerned to protect.

The AG and his office are known public entities, who conduct discussions with other known public and private entities (which is disclosed), and supports his reports with documentation, which is laid before Parliament.

Previous reports have given a good indication that malfeasance may exist in the way various public sector activities are conducted, but it's legislators who must bring public officials to book and prosecute if evidence is there to do so.

Public officials are often slippery customers and regularly hide behind various pieces of legislation to not disclose what they are doing, at the behest of Ministers or without their explicit consent or knowledge. Barbados is in danger of being seen as a fool's paradise by the total absence of any cases that involves public officials doing wrong. No country exists where John Public Servant has not done something criminal. So, why is it that Barbados manages to march along like good Christian soldiers? A country that is 'squeaky clean' should have no problem is putting in place the elements for public servants and politicians to declare their assets. It should have to problem putting up to public scrutiny what is done through the public sector, if there is nothing to hide or disclose.

The editorial quotes from Hamlet, with "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark". Critics have argued much about what this really meant, but many agree that it talked about the 'state' as being government, and that corruption, like a rotting fish, starts at the head. It should also look deeper into the play, and think about Hamlet's famous soliloquy:

To be or not to be – that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And, by opposing, end them.

There's much more in the speech, but the opening lines are always helpful to focus on the matter of whether we have the moral courage to do anything about wrongs.