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<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #3333FF"><span style="font-size: 17pt">USAID says Jamaica is not as corrupt as before</span></span>
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Sunday, March 15, 2009
CORRUPTION has declined significantly in Jamaica since 2006, according to the latest survey which will be launched by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
MUNROE... many of these institutions are not fully resourced
The USAID began conducting democracy surveys - every other year - in Jamaica since 2006, and its first report showed that 36 per cent of Jamaicans surveyed had been victims of corruption during the previous year.
But USAID director Dr Karen Hilliard said the latest survey showed a marked improvement.
"Now, when we repeated that survey in 2008, that figure had dropped to 24 per cent. So, while it dropped from one in three to one in four, when you explain it that way it doesn't sound all too impressive, but a 12 per cent drop over a year and a half, or over two years, is very significant," Dr Hilliard told JIS News.
"<span style="font-weight: bold">I think it (the latest survey) shows that the Government and the private sector got the message when the voters here, in the last (general) election, expressed their distaste for pervasive corruption, and various entities - both in the public and private sectors - are beginning to do something about it and it's beginning to show results,</span>" said Dr Hilliard.
The mission director, however, noted that despite the data showing that corruption was on the decline, the vast majority of Jamaicans still felt the country was very corrupt.
"The perception is that the country is very corrupt and, in fact, when you look at this regionally, in Latin America and the Caribbean, the perception of corruption here in Jamaica is exceeded only by the perception of corruption in places like Haiti, Bolivia and Mexico, which we all know are very corrupt places," Dr Hilliard said.
In fact, she said relatively speaking, Jamaica was still one of the more corrupt countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, even though it was still a far cry from Haiti, which scored at the absolute bottom worldwide. But the perception of corruption is declining and the actual data showed it is declining.
"In other words, we have seen a decline in the past two years, but not everybody is perceiving it that way yet, and I think that points to the need to do a couple of things," she said.
She suggested that <span style="font-weight: bold">the Government needed to:
. continue to hammer away at corruption
in Jamaica;
. make it clear that they are doing so; and
. make sure that they let the public know how they are succeeding, and where they are succeeding</span>.
"It is important for people to realise that the situation is far from perfect here, and there is much left to be done. No one would deny that. (But), things are moving in the right direction and they are moving in the right direction not just a little bit, they are moving there significantly," she said.
"Part of the reason why I think people perceive corruption as so pervasive in Jamaica, is that corruption occurs in a variety of sectors," Dr Hilliard argued.
One other significant factor she pointed out was that between 2006 and 2008 Jamaicans had expressed much less tolerance for corruption, while in the 2006 survey the bulk of respondents said it was pervasive and was reflective of the way business was done in Jamaica.
"This past year's survey - which we haven't yet launched - showed people were much less likely to just roll over and play dead where this issue was concerned. That is good, because the more the society demands clean government and a clean business environment, the more Government and private business have to respond, and that is exactly what you want to see in a democracy," she said.
"You want to see civil society holding Government and the private sector accountable for transparency, and reporting it when they don't find it," Dr Hilliard said.
The mission director said that one of the ways the USAID was supporting anti-corruption activities in Jamaica was through the National Integrity Action Forum (NIAF).
This forum emerged from an evaluation report that was sponsored by USAID on corruption in Jamaica.
"The idea of the forum is to bring all the reform champions together, whether that be the auditor general, the contractor general, the commissioner of police or customs: Bring them all together under one roof, so that they can support
each other and band together to fight corruption," Dr Hilliard said.
She said that over the next two years the forum is committed to developing standard operating procedures on how these various entities can co-operate together to detect, investigate and prosecute corruption.
Meanwhile, the director of the NIAF, Professor Trevor Munroe, told JIS News that the NIAF hopes to develop a "protocol" of ensuring greater collaboration between the entities in fighting corruption.
"What we hope to achieve in that area of our work, is to find out from those who are involved in the front lines - the chief justice, the director of prosecution, commissioner of customs and others on - how we can reduce barriers to closer co-operation, and how can we facilitate them working together while preserving their independence in getting at the corrupt ones," Professor Munroe said.
He also explained that the NIAF is charged with coming up with a set of standard messages to educate the public about corruption, as well as developing a consolidated schedule of
legal regulatory policy reforms designed to combat corruption, including reduced opportunities for corruption.
"We have the Corruption Prevention Act, we have a whole set of laws and we have a number of institutions. The missing link is that they are not that effective, because many of these institutions are not fully resourced and many of them are not properly supported. So what we are looking at is the kind of reforms that will make them more effective than they are now," he said.
He said Government was currently working on a Whistleblower Act, which will protect those who tell what they see - that is illegal or corrupt - without risking their job or their position.
He also noted that the NIAF was currently developing a set of proposals to improve legislations and institutions, through discussions with all of the persons engaged in the fight against corruption, "so as to lift our levels of honesty and integrity".
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