Integrity in Public Office
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: Declare your hand
As this column was going to press last night, CARICOM leaders were wrapping up their annual summit and I am sure a few will still be in Barbados by this evening. Several of those leaders, I am aware, are subjected on an annual basis to the declaration of their assets as well as to a "total skin out" by the Office of the Parliamentary Registrar in the lead-up to elections. I believe the time has come for Barbados to follow suit.
Ezra Alleyne and Beresford Leon Padmore are correct! I have as much influence on the leadership of the Democratic Labour Party as they do on the leadership of the Barbados Labour Party. I am therefore challenging them to persuade the leadership of their party to introduce regulations for the Mandatory Declaration of Assets by all candidates contesting the next general election in Barbados.
If they succeed in securing the agreement of their leaders to pursue and implement such regulations before the next election, and I do not succeed in getting the Democratic Labour Party to support the measure wholeheartedly, then I will tender my resignation as a member of that party. The time has come for empty scribing to end. We are either serious about building a better Barbados or we are not.
The public has a right to know the worth of each candidate running in an election. The Attorney-General does not have to scratch his head and start from scratch. Such regulations are in existence and are administered very efficiently in several of the territories represented at this week's Heads of Government Meeting in Barbados.
Prototypes of such legislation can easily be had, adapted to Barbados' laws and Constitution, and tabled in Parliament and passed into law before the dissolution of the current Parliament. I believe as well that there should be some mandatory provision for persons to declare their sources of income and the manner in which they would have amassed their wealth.
If a person cannot state publicly how he or she came by his/her wealth, then that person should be considered high risk for entering the Parliament of Barbados. Similarly, if a person in office at present cannot account for how they came by whatever they have come by, then that person should be considered as not suitable to continue to serve in that high office. Here, I am speaking not only about the funds in local banks and financial institutions, but also about moneys that may or may not be invested, some persons may say hidden, in foreign banks and institutions under corporate cloak.
I believe that the regulations should make provision for the oversight body to go to the far corners of the earth to investigate and ensure that the declarations of individuals are accurate. If you were poor five, ten, 15 or more years ago and today as a politician or "right hand man of a politician", you are filthy rich, I believe the public has a right to know how you came by such wealth, particularly when the official salaries of politicians are nothing to shout about.
I invite Ezra Alleyne and Beresford Leon Padmore to run this idea by their leaders and share with readers across Barbados and the region their position on this matter.
Turning to an unrelated matter, I believe the Democratic Labour Party is on the right track when it says it would investigate the recent spate of cost overruns on capital projects in Barbados. Opposition Leader David Thompson puts the figure, quite conservatively from my count, at some $750 million that has been frittered away in the past ten years in cost overruns on several Government and Government-enabled projects. This is a serious state of affairs.
These projects include, but are not limited to Gems, Jaws, EduTech, Greenland, Kensington Oval, the new prison, the NHC Building, the Hilton Barbados, the Desalinisation Plant and various highway improvements or attempts there at.
Something must be fundamentally wrong in our way of doing business if a project that is estimated to cost $100 ends up costing $200 or even $225. Of course in Barbados today we no longer speak in hundreds or thousands or even hundreds of thousands. We speak purely in "millions" and not only Bajan millions but more recently US millions.
Thus it is worthy of examination how all of a sudden we cannot seem to get it right as far as completing projects on time and within budget is concerned. Also, how it is that no one, not a single entity or individual, has to date been held liable for such acts of irresponsibility, if in fact they can be so called. l Hartley Henry is a regional political strategist and former Democratic Labour Party candidate. He is also said to be the Political Strategist of the Dominica Labour Party. He may be reached at hartley@mailhenry.com