Last week, it was reported that the UK Government, through the Department for International Development, is providing Jamaica’s Integrity Commission with approximately £550,000 for institutional strengthening in the following key areas: (i) development of an electronic system for filing of declarations with the Commission; (ii) drafting of Regulations to support the Integrity Commission Act; (iii) crafting of a corruption risk assessment; and (iv) development of a national anti-corruption strategy. The Commission has engaged the services of consultants to undertake these tasks.
In today’s article, we discuss the work of Jamaica’s Integrity Commission since there are important lessons to be learnt in relation to the functioning of our Integrity Commission. This is especially so, considering that Guyana is now an oil producing nation with the expectation of significant flows of oil revenues into the Treasury. As former Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran puts it in his 22 November column in the Stabroek News:
Guyana is entering a new era about which we have little or no experience. The doors are wide open for large scale abuse, bullyism, conflict of interest, theft, bribery, corruption and other traumas that have afflicted most oil producing countries…The question should not be if we need an enforceable code of conduct.
