Peter Espeut | Reforming nations and parties

I only caught live the very end of Mark Golding’s contribution to the 2025 Budget Debate, where he announced that a future Jamaica government under his leadership would amend the Integrity Commission Act to remove the secrecy surrounding the award of government contracts.

Hyped by the Government when it was first passed as a great leap forward in Jamaica’s anti-corruption struggle, I took a different view: I thought the Integrity Commission Act 2017 was a backward step, as it deepened the secrecy around the annual statutory declarations of parliamentarians and public servants; and whereas previously one could go on the website of the Office of the Contractor-General and see every contract entered into by the government – with whom it was entered and for how much – under the Integrity Commission Act that information was a state secret.

Long have there been allegations that political donations are the “quid” leading to the “quo” of the receipt of government favours, such as contracts, waivers, tax breaks, and the like. To expose bribery, graft and influence peddling we need two bits of information: (1) who gives the political donations, and how much; and (2) who gets the contracts, and for how much. Previously the second was a matter of public record, but both our main political parties have colluded to (in effect) keep the first top secret. Donations above J$250,000 must be declared, but donations of J$249,999 do not, and if I, my wife and my four children, as well as each of my parents and grandparents each donate J$240,000 to a party or candidate, that aggregate of J$2.88 million does not have to be declared. And so on, and so on, ad infinitum. Our politicians are not fools, and they know how to write meaningless loopholy legislation.

And so when I tuned in to the five o’clock news last Tuesday and caught the tail end of Golding’s speech that his government would remove the secrecy around government contracts, I wondered what other good news I might have missed. So I went to the internet and listened to the over three-hour speech in its entirety.

DISAPPOINTED

In one sense I was disappointed, for Golding did not announce that all political donations would be made public, and all asset declaration would be published. Maybe to outdo Golding, by the time you read this PM Holness will have already announced that in his Budget speech! But somehow I doubt it.

But I did hear other things in Golding’s speech I liked. I liked his declaration that his government would overtly concentrate on being ethical in its principles, values and attitudes. But Golding must know that his party – like the one now in power – has a long list of corruption scandals which are part of its identity and history. And this is because of the way politics is practised in this country.

And he must know that many people in this country become politicians to get a piece of the corruption pie, and that if he tries to change that, he is going to get a fight! I am sure he is well aware of that! I look forward to him giving it his best shot. Maybe a Campionite may succeed where others have failed.

Let us hope that the ruling party indeed tries to steal the ideas of the opposition, and that they try to “first” the opposition in anti-corruption practice.

I was pleased to hear that in his first budget exercise as prime minister, his government will cease to purloin the J$11.4 billion captured from the National Housing Trust (NHT), money that should be used to build houses for poor people. I have always wondered how neither government of any colour has been able to build good quality homes (not cheap) and offer them at low (subsidised) prices to low-income Jamaicans, but yet they can raid the NHT for non-housing budgetary support. Let’s see whether Golding’s government can do it.

I was happy to hear Mr. Golding criticise the government’s selling (at a discount) of the next 12 years of revenue from the Norman Manley International Airport to fund projects in this election year. It is a form of debt, and I like the principle he espoused: recurrent expenditure should be funded from income earned in the current year, not by leaving the cupboard empty for the future.

REFORMING EDUCATION SYSTEM

I like his statement that reforming Jamaica’s education system will be the centre of his government’s strategy for change – for economic growth and development. I wrote about that two weeks ago. Our colonial plantation legacy is nowhere more strongly felt than in our education system, designed to produce unskilled lightly educated plantation labour. Any government that can transform our education system into a force for liberation and personal growth and development will have made an indelible mark.

And speaking of moving away from colonialism, I liked Golding’s promise to restart the process of constitutional reform with a genuine consultative process. As I have written before, the two-stage process is pure ginnalship. They plead for support for stage one where a referendum is required, and then they ram the rest through with their majority in parliament like they did the Paula Llewellyn constitutional amendment. It will be important to hear the wisdom out there among the Jamaican public before making fundamental changes in our Constitution.

Over the 50 years I have been listening to budget speeches, I have never heard the opposition present an alternative budget, detailing how they will fund their proposals. I hear the political hacks discrediting Golding’s presentation because he did not give details on the revenue side of his budget, but then Golding would not be in possession of all the information he would need to do so. To ask him for chapter and verse while in opposition is unreasonable.

In his budget speech Golding sounded like a prime minister in waiting. Let’s see if he can do it!

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com