EDITORIAL - PM must put weight behind law

Few things she has said have resonated with Jamaicans as much as Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller's pledge in her inauguration address to lead a government that was "vigilant in eliminating corruption".

On this matter, we expected Mrs Simpson Miller to lead from the front - and not merely with her personal integrity. Those around her would be required to not only be scrupulous in their honesty, but it would have to be apparent that they were. The evidence, unfortunately, is that Mrs Simpson Miller has been less than robust in enforcing her mandate, including among those who work directly for her, by which we mean the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and the Cabinet Office.

We make no claim that anyone in these offices is, or has been, corrupt. Rather, we are concerned at their failure to comply with the law designed to deter dishonest behaviour and build public confidence in the integrity of government - the very thing which the PM listed atop her agenda.

Each year, public servants who earn above a benchmark salary are supposed to file assets and liability reports with an oversight commission. In 2012, the latest period for which the data are available, there were 102 such employees at the OPM and the Cabinet Office. Only 22, or 21.5 per cent, filed their reports. Put another way, more than 78 per cent were delinquent.

Cops, regulators break law

Unfortunately, it is not only those who work for the PM who don't obey the law; so, too, are those who help to enforce it, including the police - more than 4,000, or approximately 35 per cent, of whom failed to file declarations in 2012. Important regulatory agencies, as well as institutions that are supposed to be leaders of thought in Jamaica, are similarly recalcitrant, in some cases worse than the police.

Take, for instance, Tax Administration Jamaica, the agency that collects taxes on behalf of the Government and can, in certain circumstances, impose penalties on delinquents. Only around three-quarters of one per cent, or eight, of its 1,032 staff who ought to have made declarations actually did. At the education ministry, of 4,589 people who should have lodged declarations, 40 filed, or 0.872 per cent. At the University of Technology, less than five per cent were compliant.

Overall, 52 per cent of the public servants required to make declarations thumbed their noses at the commission. This has happened despite calls over the years for the strengthening of the law to drive compliance, including the authority to impose penalties - we would add meaningful - for late filings. We would, however, go further, by linking timely filings to continued employment. The heads of agencies, too, should be made accountable for compliance by their staff.

Hopefully, these suggestions, as well as other proposals by the commissioners, will be captured in the proposed overarching anti-corruption law, into which will be collapsed this agency, the one to which parliamentarians report as well as the contractor general.

In the meantime, the authorities must get on with the aggressive prosecution of provable cases of corruption, while the prime minister throws all the moral authority at her disposal and the full weight of her office into ensuring that public servants follow the law - starting at the OPM and the Cabinet Office.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.