Udecott inquiry in 2009 Global Integrity Report

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Investigations of the Commission of Enquiry into the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott), under its former chairman, Calder Hart, and the related issue of how corruption is dealt with in Trinidad and Tobago, are among elements of governance featured in the 2009 Global Integrity Report.

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For the first time, T&T is among countries featured in the reporting by Global Integrity–a US-based independent, non-profit organisation that tracks governance and corruption trends around the world, using independent local researchers and journalists to monitor openness and accountability.

Unlike most governance and corruption indicators, the report, released on February 23, mobilises a highly-qualified network of in-country researchers and journalists to generate quantitative data and qualitative reporting on the health of a country’s anti-corruption framework.

Each country’s assessment contained in the report comprises two core elements: a qualitative Reporter’s Notebook and a quantitative Integrity Indicators scorecard done by independent researchers, the data from which is aggregated and used to generate the cross-country Global Integrity Index. This year, the T&T Reporter’s Notebook is prepared by Dr Kris Rampersad, an independent journalist and a media, cultural and literary consultant.

In the Notebook, Dr Rampersad identifies some of the issues raised in the commission of enquiry, including “queries about how Udecott’s chairman, Calder Hart, managed to receive five salaries” and the award of a contract to Sunway Construction Caribbean Ltd, in which he is alleged to havefamily links. The Notebook also identifies problems in the functioning of key corruption oversight mechanisms, such as the Integrity Commission, which effectively stopped functioning in February, 2009.

New Integrity Commission

President George Maxwell Richards announced on Thursday that he would swear in a new Integrity Commission tomorrow. The Notebook also observes that social consequences of corruption in a country of 1.3 million people, an eight per cent growth rate and a per capita GDP of US$24,000, point to its inability to provide essential services to citizens. It also points out that there are many processes that facilitate corruption that may not surface in a commission of enquiry, such as failure to fill key positions in seven oversight institutions, and other factors as political interference in the police, the courts and other independent public offices. “COEs fail to find solutions to minimise the effects of the political forces that exploit the fundamental flaws in the democratic system and provide T&T with a climate ripe for corruption,” Rampersad states.

“With its bountiful energy resources, T&T’s environment allows nepotism, “constitutional dictatorship” and political interference that violate the constitutional separation of powers. These include: the unwavering support of voters primarily motivated by their ethnicity; an opposition fragmented by in-fighting, whistle-blowers often seemingly motivated by thwarted political ambitions, and the misappropriation of powers through the withholding of appointments to key government oversight posts.

About global integrity

Global Integrity was founded in 1999 with investigative journalist-turned-government-watchdog, Charles Lewis, and one of his researchers, Nathaniel Heller. Lewis is a former 60 Minutes producer who founded the Center for Public Integrity to monitor the quality of governance in the United States. It uses the same mechanisms to monitor anti-corruption in countries all over the world, working with a network of more than 650 in-country experts in 92 countries. The Global Integrity Report is now a widely-anticipated annual publication covering more and more countries each year. Global Integrity is increasingly relied on by governments, investors, and advocates as the source of information on governance and corruption trends.

Sun Mar 14 2010

Udecott inquiry in 2009 Global Integrity Report | The Trinidad Guardian