Action time, enough talk

Trevor Munroe, GUEST COLUMNIST

'He who pays the piper should not call the tune.'

Respect is due to Jamaica's current parliamentarians for their approval (House of Representatives, September 24; Senate, November 1) of the report and recommendations from the Electoral Commission of Jamaica on campaign financing (August, 2013). Next step: pass the necessary legislation. No more delay in plugging one of the key loopholes facilitating corruption.

Respect is due to this Parliament because:

Previous Parliaments took little or no action on campaign-finance reform despite repeated promises. For example, on April 12, 2006, the governor general, in the Throne Speech, stated that during the legislative year 2006-2007, the Government "intends to give priority attention to the transparent and realistic financing of political parties".

Further in October 2006, the Senate approved my resolution calling on the EAC to table the report "to require ... the registration of political parties, appropriate disclosure and transparency requirements with respect to party and election funding, provision for public funding ... ." It is left to the 2012-2013 Parliament, six years later to take this historic step.

The approved recommendations go some way to give effect to the principle that 'he who pays the piper should not call the tune' - whether in getting unwarranted tax waivers, government contracts through questionable means, unmerited development approvals, or in exercising 'undue influence' on a prime minister or minister of finance. Prevailing lack of transparency as to who is paying the piper means evidence is hard to come by as to who is calling the tune.

But is it paranoia or probability that some of the billions of dollars of approved, non-charitable discretionary waivers granted to companies (e.g. $11 billion in 2010 and 2011), many of which added insignificantly to employment creation or economic growth, were, in effect, paybacks for undisclosed, albeit legal, campaign-finance contributions?

These recommendations propose to ban foreign governments or foreign government-owned companies from making campaign contributions with the purpose or effect of getting special favours from ministers or from the Government.

These recommendations shall also ban any future David Smiths or 'Dudus' Cokes from legally contributing to a party, a candidate or a party leader.

They shall outlaw any company with a public contract above a certain sum from making contributions to a party. As such, any future Trafigura contribution would be illegal.

a maximum

The bill would require each party to set a maximum on what any single donor may give and disclose to the public the biggest donors to the party's coffers, as is normal in the UK, the US and other democracies.

Further, the legislation, when passed, would bring us into closer compliance with modern international democratic standards whereby:

In four of every five democracies, major donors to political parties and election campaigns must be disclosed to the public.

Article 7, Section 3 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC, 2005) requires Jamaica and other ratifying states "to enhance transparency in the ... funding of political parties".

If we understand that corruption is one of the three top problems facing business in Jamaica (according to the Global Competiveness Report 2013-2014) and, therefore, is one of the key roadblocks to be removed so that more jobs might be created and our economy grow, the campaign-finance bill needs to be passed in this parliamentary year - with lotto- scam speed, so to speak; not like the defamation bill, which took six years to become law. Nor like the provisions for the impeachment of public officials, which is not even a bill before Parliament - 18 years after agreement in the 1995 joint select committee.

More than enough consultation on campaign-finance reform has already taken place.

For example, in July 2006, the then Electoral Advisory Committee convened a conference on this issue during which points of agreement were reached among participants - PNP, JLP, NDM, CAFFE and international experts. The OAS joined the EAC in conferences in Jamaica in 2005, and most recently in September 2010.

As the ECJ August 2013 report points out, that body - with representatives of both political parties - has held extensive consultations with the PSOJ, the Umbrella Group of Churches, the JCSC and every important civil-society body in Jamaica. Moreover, the now-approved August 2013 report takes into consideration "comments and opinions of members of the House of Representative and Senate as expressed in debate" in 2012.

No more talk. Time to pass the law.

Professor Trevor Munroe is executive director of National Integrity Action. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and trevormunroe@yahoo.com.