President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Dr Warren Smith was not the only senior official recently to use a public forum to specifically refer to the trend in developing countries for funding provided by international lending agencies to disappear to down in the pest of darkness, the corruption of holes even as those awaiting the suffering mitigation measures that these funds are intended to bring, sink deeper into deprivation.
One of the points made by Dr Smith as well as by the Heads of the World Bank and the IMF, is that, ironically, corruption often thrives in situations that demand the highest standards of fiscal accountability and moral probity and that the absence of these qualities in times of difficulty testifies to the extent to which functional officers, sometimes operating at high levels within government and state systems, tend to go on their journeys to what constitutes with a complete call. Worse, perhaps, is the fact that corruption at high levels has ‘scaled’ beyond the level of ‘lone wolf’ criminals into organized cables containing layers of state officials, where the skull is divided clearly defined tiers that provide obligatory guidelines concerning the sharing of sick earnings.
Worryingly, Dr Smith, like his counterparts at the World Bank and the IMF, is increasingly flocking to financial aid, arrangements, conditions and caveats, relating to liability and sanctions and which, the process, makes the point, with a minimum of associated fuss that a stage has been reached where even trusted important executives cannot be relied upon to do the right thing; and while Dr. Smith et al perfect for nailing their colors to the mast when it comes to trying the anti-pollution nose, one can anticipate cases, perhaps a few, where their efforts to prevent misrepresentation are resources intended for poverty alleviation is defrauded by governments that brand the authority of a sovereign state and by extending their functional excellence.
Here, of course, is where the international aid agencies need to do two things. First, to continue to push for transparency at the domestic level in the management of aid-related finances, and secondly to seek to make a common case with compliant states to secure the support of influential international organizations for anti-corruption. protocols further summarized and attended to by clauses that speak to punish perpetuating governments.
One of the concerns that gets far too little attention in countries that claim democratic credentials is the huge latitude governments enjoy in important issues such as transparency and accountability and how much latitude they have ‘ n enjoy it as far as confidentiality is concerned. There are separate roles here for the population as a whole, for domestic local organizations, and for Parliament which, of course, cannot be effective unless driven by the kind of party acquisitions that stifle their strength.
One of the most important points Dr Smith made in his recent presentation relates to the absence of a tendency for people to embrace policies and recommendations in circumstances where they are uncomfortable with those, including those relating to their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This stems from what is an understandable disincentive to ordinary law-abiding citizens who may begin by judging governments using their own understanding of what constitutes fairness and moral integrity and afterwards discovered their disappointment, no, chagrin, that they had been deceived. .