Chronic non-compliance
NIA boss lashes public bodies for lax in expenditure reporting
TREVOR Munroe, the executive director of the National Integrity Action (NIA), on Tuesday lashed out against numerous public bodies that have failed to give detailed reports of how billions of taxpayers’ dollars have been spent over many years.
Munroe was speaking at an NIA press conference for the launch of the 2022 Corruption Perception Index.
“On the Cabinet secretary’s website, my quick count shows that in the latest report October 2022, of 160 public bodies, 120 are non-compliant with that requirement of the Public Bodies Management and Accountabilities Act. They have not launched their audited financials up to 2021. Some of them are chronic. Take for example, regional health authorities. The 2022/2023 budget provides $57 billion to go to the regional health authorities with responsibility for the hospitals and clinics. When last did they report to the minister and the Parliament on how the funds they are getting have been spent.
“The South East Regional Health Authority’s last financial report was 2010/2011. The Southern Regional Health Authority was 2012/2013 and the Western Regional Health Authority was 2008/2009. This is the deficit that we need to correct if we are to be satisfied that our hard-earned taxpayers money is being spent in the appropriate way.
“Let me not imply that all were in breach. The National Housing Trust is fully up to date. The National Health Fund, the National Solid Waste Management Authority, the Office of Utilities Regulation and the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority are fully up to date.
“If some can do it, others can. If they don’t have the financial capabilities then the ministry must provide it so that we can get a report on how our money is being spent. If the Cabinet secretary’s website is misleading us then it needs to be corrected. NEPA’S last report was 2010/2011. They are regulating environment issues but they are not regulating themselves. The Firearms Licensing Authority last report was 2016/2017. If we don’t apply the law up to the white-collar directors, how can we have legitimacy, moral authority?”
Each year, Transparency International publishes a Corruption Perception Index. The index gives a score and a rank to 180 different countries. The score and rank are derived from the assessment and evaluation of experts, technicians and business people who do that assessment. Transparency International experts aggregate a total score for each country and give an average score which can be anywhere between zero and 100. If a country’s average score falls below 50, it is considered to be among the most corrupt in the world. The closer the score is to 100, a country is considered to be among the least corrupt. Jamaica has a score of 44 and is ranked at 70.
Of 12 Caribbean states, Jamaica ranked eighth, doing better than Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Guyana and Haiti.
Munroe said a big minus for Jamaica was the impunity of white-collar directors of public bodies.
“Many of these public bodies were in breach of law and were not giving the necessary reports to the minister and the Parliament and the people. A second big minus was the continued delay in strengthening transparency in the Integrity Commission and a resistance to removing what has been appropriately called the gag clause. There was, of course, delay in the passage of anti-corruption measures.”
Transparency International remarked in the index that Jamaica has been struggling for several years but has made some progress in terms of the anti-corruption framework, well in advanced of the rest of the Caribbean.