Ronald Thwaites | Facilitating corruption

National Integrity Action recently added their strong voice to those of us concerned that scores of public corporations handling billions of taxpayer dollars every year do not bother to file their annual reports and accounts for parliamentary scrutiny on time. In fact, some entities are years in arrears, and we make light of this clear opportunity for waste and corruption. Petrojam is only one glaring instance.

Members of Parliament (MP) are elected to pass just laws and to oversee the efficient operations of government – not to be social workers and ward-healers. So since 2007 or so, I have been pressing successive administrations to insist that all bodies with an obligation to report do so on time. Further, Parliament must stop its laziness and examine the accounts and administration of each institution in detail, with a view as to whether functions are being carried out, money is well spent, and to determine even if the institution needs to be reorganised or abolished.

During Bruce Golding’s tenure, the effort received some support and a fairly regular arrears list was provided. My recollection is that it grew shorter and shorter. The excuse for delay was always that there was no money for an audit; that it was the auditor general’s office which was responsible, or that some private accountant was holding things up.

None of the private companies listed on the stock exchange or having a competent board of directors could get away with such flimsy pretexts for carelessness.

In recent years, things have lapsed again. Printed reports are no longer routinely available to parliamentarians. You are directed to a website, which is hardly consulted except by some inquisitive journalists. They are looking for scandals. This means though that, in large part, representatives have ceded their oversight function to the media. This ought to be unacceptable but has now become normative.

The other vigilant MP on these matters is Everald Warmington. So when he queried the late submission of the report of the Electoral Commission several weeks ago, I asked what was the status of other submissions, only to receive the blank stares of the House officials. No one really cares. Eventually, there was the promise of a list of the organisations in arrears. Predictably, despite repeated reminders, nothing has been forthcoming. Parliament has a way of making itself useless, and politically connected, government-appointed boards respond to none but their minister.

This ought to be a very serious matter for public concern. But it is not. We can’t hire doctors or pay nurses and teachers properly while we choose not to know whether billions of dollars are being wasted or misspent, mostly by unaccountable persons who slip away into North American shadows or hide behind juicy, non-disclosure settlements, like the folk from Petrojam when their agency is outed by the press, the Opposition, or by the likes of INDECOM.

SIMPLE SOLUTIONS

There are two simple solutions to the problem. First, if a public body is more than six months in arrears of comprehensive reporting, cut off its money and its ability to spend. Second, resource the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee and the Auditor General’s Department adequately to be able to sit continuously to review the probity and efficiency of entities which comprise perhaps 40 per cent of state services. Approach the task with a zero budgeting template in mind, and watch what you find and how things will change.

The Integrity Commission and the Public Accounts Committee only react after the event and can seldom be preemptive

In these the hardest of times, and in the face of spiralling scandals which have now taken down or compromised five ministers, ask yourself: Why not try such checks and balances? Continuing the way we do now is to facilitate corruption.

I have known J.C. Hutchinson for more than 50 years. Inflexible and sometimes stubborn he might be. But he is not venal. Hutchinson is the only trained agriculturalist to have been put sort of in charge of the sector for a long while. I have no special knowledge of all the circumstances and personae connected with the Holland lands, but I continue to admire the principle behind J.C.’s approach to food production.

Abhorring the reflexive and corrupt habit of food import licences, his is the answer to better food security, agri exports and, vitally, a locally-based school feeding programme. His vision is to avail serious, trained local investors, not resurrected land barons or slash-and-burn peasants, the opportunity to acquire good, good land for the application of modern agricultural science. Holland was to be the template for what could happen at Long Pond, Golden Grove, Bernard Lodge and, likely soon, the Nassau Valley and the rest of the moribund cane lands.

When it works, that model would redress the historic deprivation of largely black Jamaicans to access productive land. It would introduce strict standards of productivity and accountability, increase aggregate demand, employment, better nutrition, and foreign exchange savings and earnings.

There are not many in the political sphere who share that vision, combined with the passion that Minister Hutchinson brought to the task. Yet, with comatose tourism, uncertain mining, Trump-swept remittances, and soon-dead cane and sugar, coffee, cocoa and the rest, it is just the approach vital to any hope of staving off starvation and diversifying the economy. Please don’t let a worthy vision die.

And as a postscript: Kindly stop this delusion about the personal lives of political figures supposedly to be insulatable from public scrutiny. In any event, technology and the enlarged capacity for the mortal sin of gossip mean that the constitutional right to every person’s privacy is being steadily and inexorably eroded. Then, when you enter the public arena, the public will claim a right to the knowledge needed to assess character, beliefs, health and all personal and business interests which, they think, may affect your public role.

All this may be intrusive, uncomfortable and very often unfair to family relationships. But it is the reality – let’s face it.

Ronald Thwaites is member of parliament for Kingston Central. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.