Politicians most corrupt

Politicians have surpassed the police as the most corrupt group in Jamaica, according to a Sunday Gleaner-commissioned study gauging public perception on corruption. Which is not surprising, noted pundits, pointing to a string of strong-arm tactics and bravado that have undermined public trust.

According to the study titled, ‘Jamaicans’ Perception of Corruption in the Society’, for the first time in almost a decade, Jamaicans have placed their political leaders at the top of the corruption scale, accounting for 44.6 per cent of the respondents who were asked to name the most corrupt group of people that came to mind.

Of the 762 persons canvassed across the 14 parishes, 19.7 per cent named the police among the most corrupt groups; followed by central government with 14.6 per cent; scammers, 1.7 per cent; and the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) rounded out the top five, with 0.8 per cent.

The research was executed by Paul Bourne, acting director of institutional research at the Northern Caribbean University (NCU), and conducted over two weeks in May this year, and has a five per cent margin of error.

“When you have politicians who put themselves out there as being above scrutiny, who refuse to sign a code of conduct that speaks to accountability and honesty, elements intrinsic to good governance, people are going to feel they have something to hide,” said attorney-at-law Danielle Archer, principal director of the National Integrity Action (NIA), a non-partisan, not-for-profit entity registered in 2011 to combat corruption in Jamaica.

In a 2007 study by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI), the top five most perceived corrupt groups were the police, parish councils, customs, central government and public works.

And in a 2014 Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson poll, the police, politicians and government employees topped the list of who Jamaicans considered most corrupt.

That same year, the Financial Investigations Division (FID) had launched a probe into corrupt practices by public officials.

“There are public officials that we are looking at and what they have done with monies they have been given. And we are looking at how money from (government) contracts was spent,” FID boss Justin Felice said at the time.

There has been no word since on the status of that investigation.

“When you start off with persons being poor, with limited assets, then they enter politics, and within a short period of time within the political landscape their assets seem to double, people will have the perception that something is going on,” Archer told The Sunday Gleaner, explaining that politicians control a lot of power and their distribution of benefits is a reflection of themselves and public perception.

VOTE-BUYING IS STIFLING DEMOCRACY

The Sunday Gleaner probe also asked individuals to self-assess their involvement in 18 measures of corruption, one of which was “Have you ever accepted money/benefits to vote for a political party?” Twenty-two per cent said “yes”, a figure that has left Archer and other stakeholders in dismay.

“People believe they own these votes and they can sell their votes to the highest bidder, not knowing that their vote is so important and that these people are making decisions on their behalf,” Archer said. “This is stifling democracy.”

Unfortunately, she said, vote-buying and many other corrupt practices have become the norm in Jamaica, and the only way to change that cultural mindset is to start with the youngsters. Thus, the NIA has set up some 25 active integrity clubs in schools and has trained some 800 public and private sector workers as integrity advocates.

Jamaicans need to understand that little corrupt practices feed larger corruption, the NIA head argued. But how can they accept that view if they perceive their leaders to be more corrupt than they, questioned Professor Anthony Clayton of the Institute of Sustainable Development at the University of the West Indies (UWI).

“There are no moral guidelines. If people believe their politicians are corrupt, and God knows there is enough evidence that some of them are, it actually has a huge impact on society as a whole,” Clayton reasoned with The Sunday Gleaner.

“Politicians must provide a moral example to the rest of society, and if they don’t then what we get is a lowering of standards across all of society.”

And vote-buying is only part of the problem, affirmed former Political Ombudsman Donna Parchment Brown. Political corruption also comes in the unfair doling of road work, as well as fertiliser and animal feed distribution – things of value to society’s neediest, she said.

“Corruption in the political system threatens democracy and alienates the citizenry. It is one of the factors now influencing a very low voter turnout,” warned Parchment Brown, adding that during her tenure at least six cases of political malfeasance were investigated – two of which were at the highest level but the investigations had to be terminated for the complainant’s safety. There were at least another 20 reports, she noted.

Basil Jarrett, director of communication at the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA), told The Sunday Gleaner last week that, “While we have heard of such (vote-buying) incidents anecdotally in the past, we would be unable to commence an investigation without a complaint and a witness statement,” noting that complaints would be passed on to the Office of the Political Ombudsman. Today, however, that office is no more.

‘CORRUPTION HAS SEEPED INTO EVERYTHING’

“These politicians are preying on needy people!” reacted King’s Counsel Valerie Neita Robertson, who still believes vote-buying thwarted her foray into representational politics. “It is tantamount to slavery! If you tell the needy people ‘vote for me and you get money’, what do you expect the hungry and needy people to do?”

Influencing an elector to vote for a particular candidate is illegal under the Representation of the People Act, and is punishable by a minimum of $10,000, 12 months’ imprisonment, or both.

“Corruption has seeped into everything,” Neita Robertson charged. “It is becoming acceptable in all spheres of society. Even in the court process. There are people who if they want to get documents signed at the Supreme Court they just pay a money,” she alleged.

In Transparency International’s 2022 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) country rankings, Jamaica remains the fourth most corrupt state in the Caribbean. Jamaica scored 44 on the CPI with a ranking of 69 out of 180 countries. For 2021, Jamaica also scored 44 and was ranked 70 out of 180 countries. In the ranking, zero is considered highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

CORRUPTION NUMBERS ARE MUCH HIGHER

Professor Clayton believes the corruption numbers are much higher than reported in The Sunday Gleaner-commissioned probe.

According to the findings, 12.37 per cent of the 762 respondents said they have paid someone in authority to process their driver’s licence. Twelve per cent have stolen electricity from the JPS; nine per cent have stolen water from the National Water Commission; and 10 per cent have paid a justice of the peace to process documents.

Eight per cent have paid a police officer to get out of a traffic ticket; while 25 per cent of Jamaicans said they have used a “bly or a favour” to get access to goods and services. Seven per cent of Jamaicans admitted being actively involved in at least six corrupt practices.

The revelations are particularly ironic, as 90.16 per cent of the same persons responded “no” to the question of “whether they have ever been involved in any form of corruption”; as opposed to 9.84 per cent of persons who responded “yes”.

The researchers suggest that some respondents may have either been untruthful or did not regard some acts as being corrupt.

Still, corruption is regarded as a major problem locally. It was ranked on average 7.7 when respondents were asked, “On a scale of one to 10 (10 being the highest), how serious do you consider corruption?”

‘JAMAICANS ARE GENERALLY GOOD PEOPLE’

The findings of the ‘Jamaicans’ Perception of Corruption in the Society’ are similar to earlier probes by The University of the West Indies, reflected Dr Orville Taylor, senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at UWI.

“Jamaicans are generally good people. Therefore, more than 70 per cent of those surveyed declared that if they received money, goods, or services in error, they would return it,” he said. “The truth is that most of us are not thieves. Were this so, the entire country would be chaotic, and then disintegrate into anarchy.”

Dr Taylor continued, “Yet there is something hidden in the data that speaks to ‘blies’, and the connected five per cent of respondents who have indicated that they have used their power or position to access personal benefits. The flip side of the coin is that a percentage of our population has been victimised because they did not succumb or suck up to persons in power or authority.”

The findings also revealed that while some law-abiding Jamaicans appeared to have felt shafted by their desire to follow the rules, others have no qualms about not playing by the books.

Oval Henry* is among the eight per cent who said “yes” when asked “Have you ever paid the police to get out of a traffic ticket?”

“I deal with my (traffic) ticket dem pon spot. That is what I tell the police dem when they stop me,” the used-car parts dealer told The Sunday Gleaner, more proud than embarrassed.

“More time I just tell the police dem where I work and that I can help them, because police have the most taxis on the road, and they are always broke and always bawling down prices.”

He also shared that he has “helped” several customers to circumvent the law.

Two weeks ago, Henry was prepared to sell and install an engine in this reporter’s vehicle. For $5,000, he could also ‘stamp out’ its registration number. More menacingly, his services included altering the vehicle’s documents to match the registration number on the new engine. However, this is only for selected customers, he said, who cannot bother with a lengthy wait at the tax offices.

By law, to change a motor vehicle’s colour, seating, body type, or engine one must first purchase a fitness fee and take the vehicle to a depot for inspection. After which an amended fitness is issued, and motorists must return to the tax office for a new registration certificate at a cost.

Last week the head of MOCA shared that of the 62 cases the agency currently has before the courts, only six, involving eight persons, are for breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act.

Money laundering, fraud, and forgery are the most predominant, Jarrett noted.

Bourne and his team at NCU concluded that “corruption has been a long-standing problem in the Jamaican society. It appears that the social fabric of Jamaican society continues to be eroded with each passing year and that there is no will to arrest the problem. Successive administrations have promised strong anti-corruption actions, but Jamaica continues to receive an unfavorable ranking on the Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International.”

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com

TOP FIVE GROUPS JAMAICANS DEEM MOST CORRUPT

1. Politicians – 44.6%

2. Police – 19.7%

3. Central Government – 14.6%

4. Scammers – 1.7%

5. Jamaica Public Service

(JPS) – 0.8%

- The research was conducted by Paul Bourne, acting director of institutional research at the Northern Caribbean University (NCU), commissioned by The Sunday Gleaner. It used a stratified random sample of 762 Jamaicans across the 14 parishes. The data were collected over two weeks in May 2023. The sample size was computed using a 5% margin of error.