THE TWELFTH OF NEVER

I've never met the man, but I'm certain that UK anti-corruption expert Bernard de Speville must be quite unaccustomed to having his surveys answered publicly by the participants to whom he mails his lengthy questionnaires. In my case, he'll simply have to make an exception. To his plethora of questions on the causes of corruption in Trinidad and Tobago, I give these precise answers: the PNM Government must lead by example and enforce the Integrity in Public Life (2000) Act.  The Government must stop playing games with the electorate, put an end to its delaying tactics and ensure that all persons in public life, (as defined by the Act) complete and file with the Integrity Commission, a declaration of their income, assets and liabilities. It must cease trying to do what its Attorney General (former?) Glenda Morean more or less told the Senate in early July her administration intended to do: destroy the Integrity Commission. There, Mr de Speville, there are my responses to your inquisition on corruption in public life in Trinidad and Tobago. Full stop. As for the ruling party, must I again remind the PNM that it campaigned against "UNC corruption" to get back into office, that it lectured ad nauseum on moral values every Friday in the Parliament from 1995 to 2001?

Moreover, it has spent millions of taxpayers' monies on this inquiry and on that one, all in the name of allegedly preventing further corruption in public office. Should we now conclude that these inquires were not for the sake of the public, which coincidentally has not yet viewed the contents (edited or uncensored) of the report submitted on the Commission of Inquiry  into the Piarco project? Were these various probes indeed, just part of the PNM campaign for office? This Government does not need a consultant to come along and ask us about the reasons corruption has taken such firm root in our society. The Prime Minister can drive to any corner of this country and question any man or woman on the street on the matter. If he wishes to he can take de Speville along for the ride. The people will tell the two men that the problem lies in greed, contacts, bribes and kickbacks, in the fact that many people become miraculously wealthy after a few years of public service to their nation, no matter who is in power. And that no one seems to do anything  about it.  Ever. You see me, if I were de Speville, I would extract myself from this entire question of questionnaires. When one thinks of the month-to-month excuses proffered by the PNM for not enforcing the Integrity Act, this man should seek to avoid being part of something that reeks of a conspiracy to break the law, as it stands. Indeed, de Speville could consider himself Government's July apology for such a breach because it was in that month that AG Morean declared that he, de Speville, found the current integrity legislation "too weak." Did de Speville know that the PNM back in 2000 begged to differ? Was he aware that in October 2000, PNM MP Ken Valley, in his capacity of chief whip, and thus, speaking on behalf of his parliamentary peers, declared the Act, one of  which TT could be "justly proud?"

The August, but not august, pretext of this administration for not enforcing the law was, "the scope of the Act is too wide." "We had mature reflection and began to wonder if the net was not cast too wide," the Prime Minister told the country at a post-Cabinet press briefing that month. Hold on. Hadn't his MP for Diego Martin East Colm Imbert, now Minister of Health, during debate of the very Act in the Lower House on October 6, 2000, whistle an entirely different tune? Had Imbert not declared: "We are demanding that this (UNC) government amend this legislation to include the persons that we have requested, as I said, Senators, Judges, Magistrates. We  are demanding that all chairmen of state enterprises (be included)?" On to September. This was a month, in which we heard no excuses from the PNM, but there were however, promises galore of having the Integrity Act's accompanying forms and regulations approved by the Parliament. It is now clear that these pledges were aimed at placating a public that had begun to wonder whether there was any cocoa in the Balisier sun. On Friday, the Government handed us its October line. It nearly missed the monthly deadline by waiting until the 31st to tell us its latest reason for non-compliance with a law it helped pass. October's justification was the murkiest, or jokiest of them all because Government announced it was sending the forms and regulations to a Joint Select Committee of Parliament, a  committee over which, it has control, since all legislative committees are comprised of a majority of Govern-ment members. The PNM's rationale for this most recent manoeuvre: the information contained in the forms "touched so closely on MPs, it was incumbent on MPs to closely examine them." In trying to defend her regime's latest bout of procrastination, the Honourable Member for Arouca South, Camille Robinson-Regis forgot to mention that the forms and regulations had been laid in Parliament in 2001 by former UNC AG, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj. They  had thus, had been available to MPs for two years. Even Newsday had had a copy of these for quite a while.

She also forgot that since the scope of the legislation is so "wide," it covers thus, many more persons than MPs. Should these people not have a chance to participate in the scrutiny of the forms and regulations? Oh wait a minute. That will be the December excuse from the Government, if we do not hear in November that the Joint Select Committee needs more time to report to the House. In December the PNM Government might very well come to the Parlia-ment and say oh gosh, but we forgot that the Act was so comprehensive. The forms and regulations must be sent out for comment to every individual affected by it. January will thus, begin without a man or woman among them making a declaration and with a PNM New Year's resolution not to declare assets, income and liabilities in 2004. This is where Trinidad and Tobago had reached in this millennium. Life was now so sweet in Balisier land that the people protected by the ruling party were permitted to determine whether they liked a law or not before they obeyed it. Meanwhile, the Government had a consultant busy conducting a survey whose objective appeared to be to provide the PNM with one of several convenient reasons for not filing declarations. This in my opinion, made de Speville part of the problem, not part of the solution. And he would remain thus, until the PNM enforced the Integrity in Public Life Act, that is to say, until the twelfth of Never.
Suzanne Mills is the editor of Newsday.