OCG's hope renewed after Golding's proclamation on crime, transparency

CONCERNED ABOUT the slow pace at which substantive reforms to the country's anti-corruption institutional framework is taking place, Contractor General Greg Christie says his office is again hopeful, following a renewed commitment by Prime Minister Bruce Golding to stamp out corruption in Jamaica.

Golding, in his penitential statement about his involvement in the Manatt affair on Monday, pledged to deal decisively with corruption and to hold public officials to account.

An open statement from the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) yesterday, in the wake of Golding's renewed com-mitment to fight corrup-tion, highlighted that the prime minister had listed transparency and account-ability in government and the elimination of corrup-tion as priorities, in his inaugural speech.

In his September 2007 presentation, Golding had said corruption in Jamaica was too risk-free. He had vowed to impose criminal sanctions for breaches of the rules governing the award of government contracts and enact legislation to, among other things, impeach public officials guilty of mis-conduct, abuse of autho-rity or betrayal of public trust.

"However, very little has happened in meaning-ful terms between then and now," Christie said.

The head of the con-tract oversight body charged that corruption in Jamaica was pervasive in both public and private sectors.

"If it is not decisively arrested, it will render fatal and fanciful any prospects which the administration may other-wise have for taking Jamaica out of its Third-World socio-economic quagmire," Christie argued.

He said the OCG was willing to play its part in addressing the issue.

However, Christie said the OCG can do so much and no more, unless and until the administration unambiguously and forthrightly demonstrates the political will to bring about the much-needed institutional changes.