Senator: Govt must lead in changing the way business is done to fight corruption

An Independent senator has told fellow lawmakers that Barbados may have to consider doing business differently starting at the governmental level in order for anti-corruption legislation to work.

As the Senate continued debate on the Prevention of Corruption Act before its final passage as one of the last laws to be enacted before the Commonwealth realm becomes a republic next month, Independent Senator Julian Hunte called for a pragmatic approach to fighting corruption.

He said: “We must implement this bill in a practical manner; that is, we have to measure the scale of corrupt practices, assess our systems and their susceptibility to it and work towards improving them.  When people are in positions of leadership and get into corrupt practices, if they go through the requisite processes and someone is convicted, it is important that any sanction given by the courts is enforced. For us to have the best chance of ensuring a corruption-free Barbados, we must change the way we do business and practice governance.

“For example, every year employees at financial institutions go through training on anti-money laundering and terrorist financing legislation. Government should look at which ministries are most susceptible to corruption, and from there, train their staff on what to look out for and how to avoid it.”

The law, which was first enacted on June 4, 1929 when Barbados was a British Colony under the reign of King George V has been in force through Independence from Britain in 1966. It remained the law of the land governing the conduct of public officials even after an amended bill was passed in 2010 under the Freundel Stuart administration. The bill was never signed into law by the Governor General. An amended bill failed to come out of the Senate when the Parliament was prorogued in August 2020.

Both Senator Hunte and Senator Dr Christopher Maynard agreed that provisions should be made to protect whistleblowers. Dr. Maynard said: “I have serious concerns that if we do not protect whistleblowers there will be no change.

“There are clearly stated provisions for the state to provide witness protection, and this should extend to relatives and close friends of the witness as well. Once corrupt people are exposed, there is the very real possibility of retaliatory measures, some of which may be extreme in nature, so we have to ensure the whistleblowers are protected.”

Senator the Reverend Dr John Rogers stated that the determination to end corruption must begin with a commitment from the country’s leadership. Quoting Article 8 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, he said: “The Convention states that integrity, honesty and responsibility must be promoted among a country’s leaders and there should be standards of conduct for public functions. So, in light of that we must ask ourselves, ‘What is my part in the function and development of the state and how do I carry it out in a way that improves the condition of the state?’

“How people see us is in our hands; there will always be temptation, but we need to have integrity, honesty and to be responsible enough to know that our actions will affect future generations.” (DH)