Ministers on Tuesday lined up in support of legislation that would create a new counter-terrorism and anti-corruption agency, which they argue would be money well spent on the country’s development.
As they debated the Anti-Corruption and Anti-Terrorism Agency Bill in Parliament on Tuesday, Minister of Labour and Social Relations Colin Jordan declared Barbados has much to gain if the agency is able to weed out corruption effectively.
Jordan said corruption had the potential to significantly impact a country’s development if left unaddressed.
And the money would be needed to set up and run the agency was worth it, he added.
Jordan told the House of Assembly: “In my opinion, while I recognize there is a cost to setting up the structure, I also recognize that the endemic nature of corruption and its negative impact on a country and on that country’s development is so large that it merits the cost of putting systems in place to address the matter.
“Resources used in corrupt activities are resources that can be better spent on areas of national development; healthcare, education, welfare activities, activities that Governments would get involved in, activities that civil society organizations would ordinarily get involved in, but if funds are diverted to corrupt uses then those funds are not available for these very legitimate developmental activities.
“That becomes a cost for the society and very, very often the cost, just like the increased prices in the supermarket, those costs impact the people at the bottom disproportionately…The cost-benefit analysis says to me that we need to invest in structures to root out matters like corruption.”
Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Sandra Husbands also acknowledged that such an agency would be helpful to Barbados, saying that along with rooting out corruption it would also help to improve the quality of life for Barbadians.
Husbands declared: “This particular unit is going to be very helpful to Barbados not just in terms of dealing with the issue of corruption or dealing with the issue of terrorism but would make Barbados an even more attractive place for us to be able to get investment here in Barbados and we definitely need it.
“If we have a proper monitoring mechanism to deal with corruption wherever it is, it means that there will be better management of the resources of our people because wherever corruption has been allowed to run unchecked economic development suffers…Citizens enjoy a better quality of life when we are able to deal with the issues of corruption.” (RB)
