Peter Espeut | Back to square one

Once upon a time Jamaica had no National Contracts Commission or Office of the Contractor-General, and there was a high perception of corruption in the awarding of government contracts. Government contracts were not put to tender, and there was no competitive bidding.  All of a sudden you heard that a multi-million contract was awarded to such-and-such Company Ltd., and there were allegations that such-and-such a government politician was a part-owner or silent partner in that company.
One politician – it is said – was nicknamed ‘Mr. Ten Percent’ because he demanded to be given a 10-per-cent ownership (as a silent partner) in any company applying for a licence, or whatever that looked that it might be profitable.  The person I heard this from was a businessman who was relating a personal experience. What could go so?
Once upon a time our homeland had no Electoral Commission of Jamaica.  Ballot boxes were stolen or stuffed (on election night several boxes were found to contain more than 100 per cent of the possible votes), voters lists were padded, and political activists manned (and womanned) many polling stations and counting centres.  
Once upon a time, Jamaica had no Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) to set environmental standards, to require environmental impact assessments (EIAs) before projects were approved, and to issue environmental permits (with conditionalities) so projects could proceed (or be blocked).  In those bad old days, coral reefs could be dynamited, mangroves and other coastal vegetation could be removed, wetlands could be dumped up, and natural forests could be cleared, all in the name of “development” and “progress”.
I am sure that many of my readers remember the bad old days, once upon a time.
PRESSURE
Pressure was put on Jamaica by the multilateral donor agencies – the World Bank, the IMF and the IDB – and the countries behind them – to establish the National Contracts Commission, the Office of the Contractor-General, the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, and the Natural Resources Conservation Authority, to cut down on political corruption, electoral fraud, and to facilitate sustainable development – OR WE 
WOULD GET NO DEVELOPMENT FUNDING.  
Money talks, and the governments and political parties listened. And complied.
In the 1960s we cussed the imperialists for interfering in our internal affairs, but then in the 1970s and 1980s we thanked God for them, because they could force the government to be transparent and accountable and environmentally responsible when Jamaican civil society could not.
In my view, Jamaica made real progress in those heady days.
The front page headline of The Gleaner last Wednesday hit me between the eyes: “IC raises eyebrows over high number of single-source and emergency contracts awarded by public bodies”.  The story was a report of a rare press conference hosted by the staff of the Integrity Commission (IC) last Tuesday.  
The meat of the story was that “Seventy per cent of the more than 34,000 contracts entered into by Jamaican public bodies during the last financial year, with a combined value of $370 billion, were awarded using either the single-source or emergency-procurement methods, the Integrity Commission (IC) has disclosed”.
So, we are back to the days before the establishment of the National Contracts Commission, and the Office of the Contractor-General: over the last 12 months, the government awarded 24,250 contracts with no competitive bidding; only 10,147 contracts adhered to international best practice.  And because of the secrecy with which politicians have shrouded the awarding of government contracts, we are not privy to the names of the people or firms which received these contracts.  How many contracts went to politicians or their family members or to firms owned by them?  That is a state secret.
De jure, contacts awarded by single-source or emergency-procurement methods are supposed to be the exceptions, used only in rare situations.  De facto, over the last year, adhering to the government’s procurement guidelines is the exception.
Does this bother anyone?  It seems to bother the staff of the Integrity Commission, who made sure to highlight it during their rare press conference last Tuesday.  
Does this bother the private sector at all?  They are the ones entering into these opaque contracts with the government, and they have continued to fund the political parties throughout all the corruption allegations. 
Does this bother His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, or are they just biding their time, waiting for their turn at the trough?
Is this observation by the Integrity Commission of the abandonment by the government of the procurement guidelines an aberration, or is it the new normal?
BAD OLD DAYS
Take note that the Act creating the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) allows this new entity to bypass procurement rules and environmental safeguards.  We are back in the bad old days before the NRCA.
And the Act does not restrict NaRRA projects to recovery/rebuilding after Hurricane Melissa.  The government can place all its highway construction and shoreline modification efforts and everything else under NaRRA, so everything becomes single-source and emergency-procurement.  The contract awarding procedures of the last 12 months were practice for the new normal, which is NaRRA.
And there is no Robert McNamara or Al Gore type of person to put pressure on the Jamaican government to clean up its act.  More likely the opposite!
And so, all the transparency and environmental advocacy of the past 50 years has come to naught!  And we are moving fast forward into the past, back into the bad old days.
Peter Espeut is an environment and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com