The trouble with Holywell
JUDGING FROM Minister Daryl Vaz’s response to the backlash to his attempt to lease 7.7 acres of land in the protected area in the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, he, like his politician friends, just doesn’t get it. He can’t see why ordinary Jamaicans would have a problem with the bid because the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust (JCDT) did it first, so why shouldn’t he, a private citizen, be able to. “Hypocrites!” he calls them. But we the people do have a problem, even if the JCDT are indeed hypocrites. And I feel the urge to explain to all politicians why.
Let us forget for a minute that Mr Vaz, the minister charged with overseeing the portfolio of land, environment and climate change, is seeking to develop property in a protected area recently inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Let that sink in a bit but leave it out of the conversation for now.
The real issue we have is how easily it is for politicians and their friends to acquire assets at taxpayers’ expense while the rest of us only get to hear and be upset about these deals after the fact. Leasing 7.7 acres for a whopping $10,000 a month is something anybody earning more than minimum wage would jump at as an opportunity to improve their financial well-being. But how many of us ever gets these breaks? And why is it that it’s the same set of people getting the breaks all the time?
Contrary to what they may say, politicians are no private citizens. They are the top management and directors of a US$14 billion a year operation. If Jamaica was a company, it would be a Fortune 500 company. As directors and managers of this megacorporation, politicians direct how and where large amounts of money are spent. They also have access to information that average workers would not. In any corporation, the use of this limited information for personal gain would land the directors or their cronies in hot water. A famous case was that of Martha Stewart who went to jail for insider trading after acting on a hot ‘tip’. Politicians know exactly where the megadevelopments are going to be long before they are made public. They know of all the hidden government assets and they know who to talk to in order to get their hands on them. They can influence who gets government contracts and, in some cases, make their preferiti the ones selected.
And while all of this happens, we the common man never catch a break. It’s the same set over and over and over again whose names get called in these deals.
TIP OF ICEBERG
Holywell is but the tip of the iceberg. This is not an isolated incident. For years this is how the Gangs of Gordon House have divvied up the spoils of the third of our salaries that we pay in taxes. Imagine that you got your taxfree income from January till August. It means that from September to December every day you go to work it is to pay the Government. For four months out of the year you work to give them money to ensure that you live in an orderly, safe society with good healthcare and a proper education system. Are you getting value for your four months’ salary?
Every time there is talk about politicians’ assets, the spin doctors come out and change the conversation to who is badmind. We are not badmind. We want to know how is it that you all go into politics as a ‘sacrifice’ to ‘serve’ yet roll so deep on your ‘shameful’ salaries. Something just doesn’t add up. The snippets of how some people are able to afford their lavish lifestyles only come out after the damage has already been done and the fruits of my four months of hard labour have already been spent on yacht parties and Gucci boots. We can’t even get a proper declaration of assets and the Integrity Commission is hogtied into submission.
The rot in Jamaican politics is perpetuated by the ability of politicians to direct contracts. Having an auditor general investigate after the fact is akin to the police breaking down the door only after the screams inside suddenly stop. We as a country need to know about all government contracts above a certain threshold the moment they are signed. Post them online. Allow a journalist or budding bloggers to pick up on a $96- million fence; contracts for millions of dollars to a company incorporated a month before; a multibillion-dollar MOU with a company with no track record in the energy business; who got millions of dollars to chop bushes; the sale of a hotel way below market value; consultancy contracts to unqualified relatives and political allies; millions paid to distribute free light bulbs … etc. etc. etc. etc.
We cannot
rely on investigations after the fact because the money done gone and we seldom see justice served.
Whistle-blowers are terrified of retribution. I know, I’ve been one. But not everyone will take the risk to appease their conscience. We must make the need for whistle-blowers a thing of the past. Put the policies in place that will allow full transparency in the issuance of contracts. Put them all online!
I can see the counterarguments already about the associated costs of the proposal and how bidders would not want their business out there, especially with the crime situation. The cost of corruption is roughly $104 billion annually. And this is not even counting all the lost investments because of the difficulty of doing business and the high crime rate that corruption breeds. The real question is: can we afford not to do this?
For the nervous bidders, you can always choose not to do business with an entity if you don’t like the processes. But all well-thinking Jamaicans would rather ensure that they are getting value for money and not paying 10 times market value for goods and services. If you are most concerned about people getting upset over how much you are overcharging them, then maybe you shouldn’t overcharge them in the first place.
I challenge both political parties to update their election manifestos with a promise to publish all government contracts above a certain threshold if they form the next government. That would be the most defining step in the fight against corruption. It would allow preventative rather than reactive outrage as they would know that those contracts are better be able to stand up to public scrutiny.
Of course, they will not commit to this. Because that would be counterproductive to the interests of the politicians and the party. And in Jamaica, the interests of the politicians and the party always trump the interests of the people. And that, my friends, is the trouble with Holywell.
■ Dr Alfred Dawes is a general, laparoscopic and weight loss surgeon, and medical director of Windsor Wellness Centre & Carivia Medical Ltd.; Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; former senior medical officer of the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital; former president of the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association. @dr_aldawes. Email feedback to columns@ gleanerjm.com and adawes@ ilapmedical.com