Jamaica is covered by a blanket of corruption. As with so many other negative things, Jamaica joins Guyana and Haiti among Caribbean countries at the bottom of the rankings for control of corruption on the index of the World Bank Institute, and we are in the company of Cuba, as well as near the bottom on the rule-of-law index.

But something, beyond the largely unfulfilled promises of the Golding administration, is to be done about the matter to tackle corruption. Last Wednesday, a group of 'opinion-shapers', mostly media people, were assembled in the august council room of the UWI by a new outfit called the National Integrity Action Forum [NIAF] to discuss the action. The NIAF was launched on January 28 by the Centre for Leadership and Governance, a collaborative effort between the Department of Government and the Mona School of Business.

Determination to tackle corruption

At the launch, the prime minister, as keynote speaker, reiterated his government's determination to tackle corruption and praised institutions like the Office of the Contractor General that were now vigorously doing so.

Opinion-shapers must already be doing something right in the fight against corruption. For, as NIAF project leader, Professor Trevor Munroe, pointed out, for the first time last year, "too much corruption" ranked second in the Don Anderson polls [behind the run-away perennial leader, crime and violence] as the main thing wrong with Jamaica. But we face a little conundrum: While awareness of corruption and anger against it are rising, it is deeply embedded in the general culture and widely tolerated as the 'runnings'.

The NIAF has timed itself to capitalise on a window of opportunity now open. In addition to the rising public disaffection with the way things are with corruption, a USAID-sponsored, government-backed Corruption Assessment for Jamaica last year noted that a number of newly appointed, strategically placed and energetic reformers were part of a conjuncture of events, policies and personalities which created "real opportunities for change". The report listed the commissioner of police and the assistant commissioner of police (ACP) with responsibility for the Anti-Corruption Branch, as well as the commissioner of customs, the director of public prosecutions, the chief justice and the contractor general. The NIAF aims to generate support for these "energetic reformers". The ACP and the customs commissioner were special presenters at the meeting.

The NIAF information pack included an international listing of some 20 cases of action prosecuted against high-level corruption. The prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, faces prosecution on several counts of fraud, abuse of confidence and falsification of documents. A US Senator, Ted Stevens, has been convicted on seven counts of corruption.

Role of investigative journalism

In the Philippines, former president, Joseph Estrada, has been convicted of plunder amounting to an estimated US$78 million - US$80 million and sentenced to life imprisonment, a coup largely pulled off by investigative journalism driven by the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism and documented by the World Bank Institute. And Bertie Ahern was forced to resign as prime minister of Ireland last year over credible allegations of secret, undisclosed payments received from businessmen.

While participants were lamenting last Wednesday that Jamaican leaders neither resign voluntarily nor charged for corrupt practices, the Corruption Assessment Report noted as part of the window of opportunity for stronger anti-corruption action "the first high-profile arrest and prosecution of a leading member of the political directorate in almost 20 years".

Perhaps mass toleration of corruption would be considerably less if people understood that, as the 2005 UN Convention against Corruption which Jamaica ratified last year puts it: "Corruption hits the poor disproportionately by diverting funds intended for development, undermining a government's ability to provide basic services, feeding inequality and injustice and discouraging foreign aid and investment. Corruption", the convention says, "is a key element in economic performance and a major obstacle to poverty alleviation and development." It is no surprise that while Jamaica is in the company of Guyana and Haiti at the bottom of the list, it is The Bahamas and Barbados which lead the Caribbean region on the control-of-corruption index.

As one participant noted, one of the hallmarks of corruption is that people pay twice. At this time of economic distress, job losses and likely tax increases, Jamaicans should be very angry over any second, under-the-table, payment to obtain the goods and services to which they are due, either from previous payment of taxes, or the payment of a legitimate fee.

But often, the citizen's cost calculation is rationally in favour of yielding to corruption to obtain what is needed with the least possible hassle. Forum presenter, Danville Walker, commissioner of customs, put it another way. Efficiency, he said, along with transparency, is the greatest cure for corruption.

But the system is often designed to foster corruption. As a case in point, Walker shared his experience with repairing schools while he headed the Office of National Reconstruction, set up after Hurricane Ivan. Contractors could only get paid after the work had been assessed by Ministry of Education building inspectors. Inspection only took place on time when 'facilitated' by the contractors playing ball.

Complaints were futile as the supervisors of the inspectors were themselves promoted inspectors in a system where the unwritten rules were well established. There have been cases of contractors, having spent and unable to recover in a timely fashion, going bankrupt while waiting.

Complex, opaque, inefficient systems, in which operators have large discretionary powers over the allocation of scarce resources and without accountability, breed corruption. In this regard, the 2006 annual report of the contractor general identified 99 agencies out of approximately 300 in the public sector that were of "sustained interest".

Unregistered contractors

Furthermore, half of the contracts reviewed were awarded to contractors not registered with the National Contracts Commission, while 23 per cent were awarded "without any evaluation from any public body whatever". I must point out, however, that there is danger that anti-corruption regulation and procedures can be so onerous as to create their own corruption.

Opinion-shapers in media have accepted the challenge to cast the spotlight necessary for transparency more strongly upon the operations of public agencies, to keep corruption issues in public focus, and to help the necessary public-education drive. As the NIAF project leader pointed out, the very underutilised Access to Information Act can be a great ally for the media in the fight against corruption.

Martin Henry is a communications consultant. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.