Three years after tabling, anti-corruption bill fails to see light of day

Three years after the government tabled its anti-corruption bill in the House of Assembly, it has taken no action on moving it forward, notwithstanding the fact that strengthening the country’s anti-corruption regime was a key plank in the Free National Movement’s (FNM) 2017 election campaign, and corruption perceptions were the primary reason for the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) loss at the polls.

The government’s legislative focus has been on bills to protect the financial services sector. The agenda overall has been pretty lackluster.

In the last year, the Cabinet has also had to place a great deal of attention on responding to Hurricane Dorian, an unprecedented event, and beyond that, the COVID-19 crisis has diverted energies elsewhere.

Still, there had been no indication prior to these crises, that the government was serious about moving anti-corruption legislation forward. Tabling the Integrity Commission Bill in October 2017 was a major step, but it was quickly shelved, never to see the light of day.

The bill, tabled by then Minister of State for Legal Affairs Elsworth Johnson, had been touted as possibly groundbreaking.

It comprehensively detailed acts of corruption, including the behavior of public officials with respect to the award of contracts and soliciting or accepting any personal benefit or providing an advantage for another person by doing an act or omitting to do an act in the performance of his or her functions as a public official.

The bill had other key provisions:

Where a person who is or was in public life is found to be in possession of property or a pecuniary resource disproportionate to his known sources of income, and he fails to produce satisfactory evidence to prove that the possession of the property or pecuniary resource was acquired by lawful means, he would be guilty of an offense and would be liable on summary conviction to a fine and a term of imprisonment not less than six months and not more than three years.

In imposing the fine, the court shall have regard to the value of the property or resource in possession of that person, and such fine may be equivalent to one and one half times the value of the property or pecuniary resource found to be in the person’s possession.

The law would provide for anyone with knowledge of alleged corruption to report it to the Integrity Commission.

Where a person has reasonable grounds to believe that a public official has committed an act of corruption, he may, orally or in writing and with or without disclosing his identity, make a complaint to the commission.

In addition to establishing the Integrity Commission, the bill intended to promote and enhance ethical conduct for MPs, senators and other public officials.

It outlined measures for the prevention, detection and investigation of acts of corruption and would repeal the Public Disclosure Act, which has not been updated since it was passed in 1976.

The commission would be responsible for receiving and keeping all declarations, statements of registrable interests and reports of gifts forwarded by people in public life.

It would also be empowered to carry out investigations to verify the accuracy of declarations and investigate complaints of alleged corruption and alleged contravention of the Code of Conduct for people in public life, among other matters.

In 2017, we observed in this space: this comprehensive piece of legislation would represent a significant strengthening of the anti-corruption regime in The Bahamas, something that was promised by the Christie administration, but failed to materialize.

“Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis and the FNM were swept to power seven months ago amid widespread views among Bahamians that the former government was corrupt,” we noted at the time.

“Minnis, like Christie before him, promised to put in place specific anti-corruption legislation. By doing so early in the term, the prime minister no doubt expects to hold on to much of the goodwill that got him elected.”

Much time has passed since then. The goodwill has certainly dried up.

In addition to anti-corruption legislation, the government in October 2017 also introduced a bill to establish the office of the ombudsman, which would be charged with investigating maladministration.

Johnson said at the time the bills were long overdue.

“The first…constitutional commission recommended an ombudsman,” he said as he introduced the bills in the House of Assembly.

“The second one recommended an ombudsman to deal with these issues of administrative malfunctions to assist the poor and the indigent.

“…I want to say the plan of this government is to restore the integrity of the name of The Bahamas so that foreign investors and local investors feel comfortable to do business. Any First World country wanting to be on the cutting edge of finance and economic activity, they have brought these legislation into place.”

We are not on the cutting edge of finance and economic activity and we have not brought those pieces of legislation in place, either.

We would be surprised if the government heading into an election year places any focus on the bills.

After speaking repeatedly about the need for a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) while in opposition, the Free National Movement in office has also failed to fully enact the FOIA.

The Minnis administration has said it needed time to put in place the infrastructure before enacting the legislation passed under the previous administration.

It is no longer mentioned.

There has been a whole lot of promises on these matters. Politicians often talk a good game. The challenge is follow-through.

We have said it here before — when all is said and done, in the end, much more is said than is actually done.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/three-years-after-tabling-anti-corruption-bill-fails-to-see-light-of-day/