It would seem corruption is everywhere.

The Auditor General, Sue Winspear spoke about it in great detail in her recent report “Fighting Corruption in the Cayman Islands”.

Last Saturday (19) Opposition Leader, Ezzard Miller, also spoke on the same subject at a meeting he attended, and invited to speak by the orgnisers, at The South Sound Community Centre.

Winspear used planning as a case study to see how well our government is doing at battling corruption. She found progress had been made but, as I said in a previous editorial, she pointed to the failure to implement the ethics law. She also pointed out the need to reshape the Central Planning as there were risks.

She urged the government to diversify the membership of the CPA because, despite recommendations by the Office of the Auditor General some three years ago, the make-up of the board is still weighted heavily towards developers and those in the construction sector, leaving the board vulnerable to corruption and perceived conflicts of interest. She was concerned that despite the CPA meetings were now open to the public decisions were still not fully transparent.

Miller, however, took a different approach. He pointed to a failure in the democratic process as one of the root causes of the growing menace of corruption, using the Cruise Port as his example seeing that was why he was invited.

He said when “people begin to operate behind closed doors, without due consultation and open sharing of information, we risk corruption. Unfortunately, we see a lot of this playing out in the Cayman Islands today.”

“Democracy in its truest sense is absolutely dependent on this dynamic two-way flow of vital information. This type of sharing has become an increasingly rare practice among those whose duty it is to initiate this type of engagement—critical even if it may involve some discomfort. When there is information, there is enlightenment. When there is debate, there are solutions. The flip side of that open exchange is a failure to share power—ultimately risking corruption.”

However, corruption, according to Transparency International, is rife around the world with more than two-thirds of countries score below 50 !

One only has to do a search on the Internet about corruption in governments and the headlines blaze across your computer screens.

Whilst Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America are very prominent even Britain takes a hammering. And China isn’t getting any better.

Australia isn’t left out. According to a study executed by the Australian Parliament it said there was corruption at all levels.

“Corruption in Australia – a very wealthy country by global standards – is not the same as corruption in a poorer country. Professor Graycar informed the committee that the kinds of corruption risk in a rich country are not typically small scale bribes to low level officials, but in corrupt conduct that influences the creation of new laws and awarding of government business”. See https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Establishment_of_a_National_Integrity_Commission/NIC/Interim%20Report/c02

I have left the USA until last.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren claims “corruption is rotting the USA from within” and the Washington Post agrees with her. See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/08/22/elizabeth-warren-is-right-corruption-is-rotting-the-u-s-from-within/?utm_term=.a524962ea18a

So there is corruption everywhere and can it ever be stopped?

I doubt it. We can only try and make corruption more difficult.