Basil Jarrett | Corruption during crises

Corruption and COVID. Two words that, aside from the fact that they both start with the letter C, couldn’t be any further apart in terms of the reaction they elicit from Jamaicans. One immediately generates anxiety, fear, frustration and a longing for life to return to normal. The other triggers a loud, clear and resounding … meh!

Jamaicans have a strange, uneasy coexistence with corruption. We decry our politicians when it happens in big government, but will look the other way while sliding a few dollars under the table to get out of a traffic ticket.

Part of the reason that we have such a high corruption index – the fourth highest in the Caribbean, I’m told – stems from the pervasive sentiment that corruption is only wrong when we aren’t benefiting from it. Most Jamaicans take a legalistic view of corruption and have a hard time seeing the direct link between corruption and some of our most pressing social maladies, such as poverty, crime and poor infrastructural development.

But a few weeks ago, when our nurses stayed away from work to protest low wages, poor working conditions and limited access to personal protective equipment and other essential tools, our healthcare sector appeared on the brink of a crisis, raising fresh questions about Jamaica’s ability to fund its COVID fight.

SOME WAYS TO GO

Corruption has long bled this country of valuable resources. Social welfare, national security, infrastructural development and education have all been hampered as a result of theft, widespread corruption and inappropriate conduct among public officials.

The country has advanced numerous initiatives to curb corruption, such as The Integrity Commission and National Integrity Action, with each having public-sector transparency and accountability squarely in their sights. Despite such important progress, Jamaica’s high corruption index suggests that we still have some ways to go.

Enter the COVID-19 pandemic, and suddenly the problem is exponentially exacerbated. You see, during any national crisis, much less a global one, large financial resources in the form of budgetary allocations, non-governmental organisation (NGO) donations and external funding are mobilised almost overnight and the sector is suddenly awash with dollars.

When the COVID pandemic first erupted, for instance, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pledged over US$1 trillion to help member countries, while the World Bank allocated another US$160 billion in grants and concessions. This massive injection of cash, coupled with the exigencies of an urgent pandemic response, creates, potentially, a perfect storm for corruption and malfeasance, as anti-corruption safeguards are removed, procurement procedures are skirted, and accountability, due diligence and oversight are shelved, all in the name of expediency. And we don’t need to look very far for examples.

In the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami, for example, a joint donor evaluation report revealed that the distribution of humanitarian rescue and relief supplies in Sri Lanka and Indonesia was unfair and biased, and marked by widespread favouritism and nepotism.

During the most recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the UNDP reported widespread corruption in the form of diverted relief funds and medical supplies, misreported salaries, overstated payments for goods and bribery of public officials to circumvent Ebola control measures.

And just last year when COVID-19 happened on the scene in Zimbabwe, that country’s minister of health was charged with criminal abuse of office after he allegedly bypassed proper procurement procedures in awarding an inflated US$60 million contract for COVID supplies.

For a country deemed fourth most corrupt in the Caribbean, you don’t have to be a gambling man to see the potential for similar abuses here in Jamaica.

As citizens, we must insist that anti-corruption, due diligence and accountability measures are left intact during the pandemic, and pledge that after COVID, there will be a vigorous, post-pandemic examination of public spending. Or as one anti-corruption official put it, “spend what you must now, but be sure to keep the receipt”.

It’s a complex situation. When people are dying and lives are at risk, controlling and sanctioning corrupt behaviour becomes less of a priority, as no one wants to hear that a life-saving piece of equipment is tied up in bureaucratic red tape. At the same time, however, if that piece of equipment is worth $1 million on its best day, then paying $10 million for it robs us of funding for other important pieces of equipment or resources down the line.

As I said, it can be very complex.

DESPERATE TIMES & DESPERATE MEASURES

While we may indeed be living in desperate times, we must avoid the temptation to accept corruption under these pandemic circumstances under the guise of desperate times calling for desperate measures. Governments and the donor community must ensure, therefore, that anti-corruption and strong integrity principles are reinforced.

Anti-corruption must be a central theme from the onset, as are actions designed to prevent conflicts of interests, deliver open and transparent procurement processes, and an “open by default” approach to all aspects of COVID-related national spending.

Similarly, critical stakeholders, including foreign donors, anti-corruption watchdogs, civil society organisations and the media must continue to stress oversight and accountability.

The average citizen, too, must play their part by being vigilant for real, practical, telltale signs of corruption. These include situations where documents and information that, by law, ought to be made public are either hidden or non-existent, or when large, dubious invoices do not show clearly what services or products are being paid for.

Questionable procurement activities such as large purchases of goods or services that the organisation has little use for are other subtle signs that something may be awry. In addition, a situation where one supplier routinely wins contracts in cases where there are cheaper or superior alternatives should also raise suspicions, as should instances where contracts are directly awarded without competitive tendering.

These issues, which have always dogged us, are even more critical now.

Look, I know that we are all desperate to see the back of COVID. We all want to be able to go outside without masks, hand sanitisers and those annoying temperature checks every time we enter a building. We all want to recover from COVID and we want to do so quickly. But we must do so with honesty, transparency and integrity. If not, we may ultimately end up delaying this recovery while simultaneously robbing ourselves of the very future we are so desperate to realise.

Major Basil Jarrett, MA, MBA, is a communications strategist and CEO of Artemis Consulting – a communications consulting firm specialising in crisis communications and reputation management. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com