Contractor General Greg Christie's recent complaint that the certification and registration process for contractors seeking government contracts was mired in corruption would surprise few. Yet, this should not be allowed to slide as part of the general run of how we do things in Jamaica

Mr Christie told a joint select committee of Parliament examining this year's report from the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) that some contractors were beating the system by falsifying information about the professionals they have in their employment. People are being paid to 'sell' their credentials without actually being employed to companies seeking to obtain or maintain registration at a particular grade from the National Contracts Commission. Mr Christie's guesstimate is that more than 50 per cent of the contractors who are registered may have been registered on the basis of false representations, although applications must be attested by a justice of the peace as true and accurate. The OCG has declared intention to perform a forensic examination of each application, some 2,340 of them!

While the goal of wringing corruption out of the system of government contracts, a major locus of corruption, is laudable, we should, however, be careful that the anti-corruption processes themselves do not breed more corruption. If 50 per cent or more of contractors are abusing the process of registration, then this may be a clear signal that the system itself, as configured, may be breeding non-compliance.

The Incorporated Masterbuilders Association has been complaining about the complexity and tediousness of the re-registration process, which can take up to six weeks. And the CG admitted to the parliamentary committee a backlog of applications, which will, it appears, increase even further with the new stringency for "forensic assessment" of each application.

The link between the CG's complaints and the evidence of other forms of social dysfunction should not be lost on the society. More lives were lost in Tropical Storm Nicole than in several previous hurricane-related natural disasters. Several persons perished when their vulnerable dwellings were washed away by flood waters. Therefore, Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie's declaration that many of the communities, aided and abetted by both political parties in locations vulnerable to natural disasters, were not only pockets of votes, but "pockets of disaster and destruction for the country", is more than mere political rhetoric. Lives are at stake. So, while no specific laws may have been broken, the safety of citizens has been compromised by 'corrupt' political action, or inaction, and stress placed upon the public purse for picking up the pieces after avoidable disaster and destruction.

Informal settlement

Mayor McKenzie in his speech to the Area One Council of his party also took on the Mona Commons informal settlement in front of the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI). As we have had occasion to point out previously, on top of other problems posed by that 'informal settlement', which has been allowed to take root at Mona Commons, quick, emergency access to the UHWI has been compromised. But, apparently, a block of votes has been at stake, overriding all other concerns.

The most recent Corruption Perception Index published annually by the Berlin-based anti-corruption agency Transparency International shows marginal improvement for Jamaica. Clearly, we have nothing to crow about just yet, and if the country is to make further progress, civil society must apply more pressure to ensure that the dangerous tentacles of corruption are not allowed to extend further than they already have.

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