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Call made for legislation making nepotism, cronyism criminal offences

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Rev Peter Espeut and Howard Mitchell
 
Gleaner columnist Reverend Peter Espeut is advocating for legislation to make nepotism and cronyism in the public sector, a crime.
 
Reverend Espeut is calling for Jamaican influencers to lobby political parties and governments to make the acts criminal offences.
 
The issue has again been raised following the publication of two Integrity Commission reports on Petrojam which had strong allegations of cronyism and nepotism.
 
Similar allegations were also made following an investigation by the former Office of the Contractor General into the award of contracts through the constituency office of St. Ann South East Member of Parliament Lisa Hanna.
 
Speaking Monday on TVJ's Smile Jamaica programme, Reverend Espeut said Jamaica's politics is based on nepotism and cronyism. 
 
"You cannot have a situation where politicians use taxpayers' money to hire their relatives. That is corruption. Of course, we don't think so in Jamaica because our politicians have not made it a crime and public opinion has not pressured the government, any government, any political party since the last 50 years to make cronyism and nepotism a crime," he contended. 
 
He said to discourage the practices, there must be serious sanctions, however, he acknowledged that it will be difficult for politicians to make the shift because of the existing culture. 
 
"Why can't we have the PNP, who is seeking power, or the JLP seeking to hold on to power - why can't we pressure them to say 'If you elect me, I am going to make nepotism a crime'? They don't dare do that, because then people will not support them. 'Why should I support the party if I am not gonna get a job under cronyism?' It is a serious matter, I agree, but we've got to step up the pressure on both parties." 
 
Corruption institutionalised 
 
Howard Mitchell, Chairman of the Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal, has echoed similar sentiments, noting that corruption has become institutionalised in Jamaica.
 
Mr. Mitchell is of the view that the leadership of the country is encouraging corruption, evidenced by them not being serious about implementing anti-corruption legislation. 
 
"If you look at, for instance, the process of formation of legislation to combat corruption, you get this wonderful talk, you get the dialogue about the law, you get the content of the law, it is put together, you have experts from other countries, you have assistance from the international partners and it goes to parliament; And in going through parliament, the law comes out one side and the teeth come out the other side or they don't come out at all."
 
"So either the law has no budgetary allocation or the regulations to the law are not finished, or by the time it gets through parliament, it's so watered down that you can't even recognise it. So that is one example of institutionalised conspiracies to defeat anti-corruption measures," he complained.  
 
Mr. Mitchell added that the leadership of the country also needs to get serious about holding people to account, indicating they can do so if they "strengthen our laws and our investigative processes so that we can arrest people for the things that they do." 
 
He was speaking Monday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106.
 
 


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