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grenville-phillips
Submitted by Grenville Phillips II

he recently defeated Integrity in Public Life Bill (Integrity Bill) will not trouble the scores. Despite the fake Oscar-contention outrage of our senators, if the bill had passed, it would simply have made corruption legal in Barbados. That is how terrible the bill was designed.

At first, the bill specified that a person could not be investigated for corruption after they had retired from public life for 2 years. So, a person who received a bribe in January 2018 and then retired, cannot be investigated after February 2020.

A sloppy bribe may be uncovered by a financial audit, but the 2018 accounts are audited in 2019. The earliest the Auditor General will look at the 2019 audited accounts is in 2020, after the fellow has retired. How convenient. Perhaps the time has come to ask our politicians and senators, why they would champion such a farce.

After Solutions Barbados explained the farce, the final Bill increased the time where no investigations can happen, to 5 years. That is also useless in Barbados, since the Auditor General provides his annual report of many issues that are more than five years old. A short limit on investigating corruption is a glaring loophole for guilty persons.

The Integrity Bill will likely cost taxpayers $5M each year, to recover less than $50,000. It is a farce. It conveniently ignores the estimated $100M of corrupting no-bid contracts each year. The Integrity Bill is wasteful, ineffective, and practically useless for Barbados. Consider the following scenario.

CORRUPTION 101.

A company bribes a person to get a no-bid contract. The company charges the Government five times the normal value of the work, which Barbadians must pay in higher taxes (that is why most Barbadians live hand-to-mouth). The bribe may be paid in any of the following ways.

1. Paying his election advertising expenses.

2. Building a house, and transferring ownership five years after he retires.

3. Purchasing land, and transferring ownership five years after he retires.

4. Purchasing financial instruments that mature five years after he retires.

5. Funding community projects in his constituency.

6. Paying money to his friends.

7. Selling him property (eg. car, house, etc) at a significant discount.

8. Paying for the renovation of his house.

9. Paying his children’s educational costs.

10. Hiring consultants and employees whom he recommends.

11. Hiring him as a consultant five years after he retires.

12. Procuring and managing a business (eg restaurant or store), and transferring ownership to his family five years after he retires.

There are hundreds of similar ways of paying and receiving bribes. Our useless Integrity Bill is conveniently designed to avoid all of them. Worse, the Integrity bill does not address any of the common methods of political corruption.

POLITICAL CORRUPTION.

Forcing the public to make payments to consultants that only benefit one political party, is political corruption. The payments are normally made to political supporters, who may be disguised as: public relations, media, information technology, security, or financial advisors.

Solutions Barbados recommended an effective anti-corruption policy. It is based on the proven method of rewarding whistle-blowers, as an incentive to blow the whistle. We planned to reward them with the total value of the bribe. We also planned to fine both the bribe givers and the bribe takers, to pay for the policy.

The whistle-blowers already know about the corrupt activities. They include: tellers who did the bank transactions, contractors who renovated the houses, lawyers who drafted the contracts, accountants who did the audits, and vendors who sold the properties. Employees of the department that gave the no-bid contract, and the company that paid the bribe, also know.

The Government is planning to pass a whistle-blower protection bill, but there is no reward incentive. Instead, the exposed whistle-blower gets to keep working in the now toxic work environment, until it takes its foreseen emotional health toll. What a farce of an incentive.

It is time for our politicians and senators to stop giving us false hopes. If they do not plan to reward whistle-blowers, and abolish corrupting no-bid contracts, then at least be honest with Barbadians. Passing an ineffective Integrity Bill is not in the public’s best interest. However, it is good political advice, that benefits only one political party.

Grenville Phillips II is a Chartered Structural Engineer and President of Solutions Barbados. He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com

341 responses to “Preventing Corruption in Barbados”


  1. What can one do with young murderers even when black and underprivileged? What can one do with them when if left to their own devices they would murder again?

    Perhaps one solution is to lock them up and improve the jailhouse rehabilitation opportunities. Then offer them support when they are released.

    If some stray bullet kills a child can we leave these guys on the street to spray more bullets around?

    It is my opinion that there is a need for police, prosecutors and some form of confinement. It is also obvious that the policing, prosecuting and confining need serious and comprehensive reform.

  2. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    Black people are the only group of people on this earth, who have voluntary surrendered the commanding heights of the private sector of their economy to other ethnic tribe who don’t look like them and don’t give a damn about them either. From the caribbean to africa, the pattern remain the same. Is this some divine curse on our people ? The brightest among us either migrate to western countries or go work for the government. And it is this latter cohort who make up the bulk of the elite and middle class. Among this lot you will find the over-compensated fat cats, bribe takers, along with all type of crooked and shady characters, who most times are in collusion with this same private sector group.

    These are the folks who live in huge mansions, have second properties in metropolitan cities and offshore bank accounts etc.They have resigned themselves to the situation that the only way to live ”the good life” like the whiteman is through public graft.


  3. Lived my whole young life slender. Put on a few pounds in my middle age.

    STILL NOT FAT! Not even plump!

    But my worth is not solely defined by my physical form.

    Happily I am now old enough to appreciate that. Some old men are still stuck in teenaged minds even though their nether regions have problems rising.

    P.S. I think somebody just inadvertantly tried to insult TheO’s wife whom I recall has put on far more weight than I have. I also recall that TheO still finds her sexy. This signals that he has left his silly teenage years behind and has grown along with his wife to appreciate what matters most.


  4. And now…. back to the topic.


  5. Ah…it has started and if you had any intelligent leaders who did not carry the sell out gene, they would have already started designing a new order of governance and a better streamlined society to withstand the coming shocks, therefore the Black population would be well on their way to SELF EMPOWERMENT, progress, wealth and reeducation devoid of the greedy racist tentacles of a corrupt minority…. but instead Ms. Fighting Imperialism was appealing to Pope Fraud to create a new world order for her…while she pimps tourists….and still determined to keep corruption in play….and the island mired in the 1800s.

    ..the UK is ready to unleash their new system of whatever…..but first comes the CRASH…

    “London (CNN Business)UK economic output shrank by 20.4% in the second quarter of 2020, the worst quarterly slump on record, pushing the country into the deepest recession of any major global economy.

    This crash in GDP in the April-June period, compared with the first quarter, is the worst since quarterly records began in 1955. Industries most exposed to government lockdown measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic — services, production and construction — saw record drops.

    Boris Johnson’s dream of a ‘Global Britain’ is turning into a nightmare
    “Today’s figures confirm that hard times are here,” UK finance minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement. “Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, and sadly in the coming months many more will. But while there are difficult choices to be made ahead, we will get through this, and I can assure people that nobody will be left without hope or opportunity. Compared with the end of 2019, UK economic output fell by a cumulative 22.1% in the first six months of 2020, a worse outcome than Germany, France and Italy, and double the 10.6% fall recorded in the United States, the Office for National Statistics said. Among the remaining G7 economies, the decline in GDP is also expected to be less severe than in Britain. Canada’s statistics agency said it expects second quarter GDP to shrink 12% on the previous quarter, while economists surveyed by Reuters predict a 7.6% quarter-on-quarter contraction in Japan.”


  6. fortyacresandamuleAugust 12, 2020 1:36 AM

    @John. And the republican righties are all about corporate welfare and tax break for the 1%. Ironically, when capitalism is threatened, they usually become shameless socialist: implementing all kind of government bailouts to save the system.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Point is that there will be more to steal under Democrats because they like to tax and control everybody and everything.

    State sponsored capitalism aka fascism/communism/socialism naturally encourages corruption.


  7. DonnaAugust 12, 2020 7:48 AM

    It is also instructive that Obama also identified as black even though he was raised by his white mother and grandmother.

    One drop of visible black blood makes you black. A fact of life for which smart people prepare themselves and their children.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Al Sharpton certainly doesn’t think Obama is black like him and even Biden, before he lost his cognitive abilities reckoned Obama broke the mold and presented himself as clean and articulate.

    The LA times gave Obama the nick name “The Magic Negro” way back when.


  8. Biden in his declining years can’t hide his racist tendencies.

    I am surprised given his recent opinions on the lack of diversity in the African American community when compared with the hugely diverse Hispanic community that Kamala Harris even accepted the appointment.

    After all she recognised his racist thinking and called him out on it in the primaries.

    The wife isn’t too taken with Kamala Harris.

    She is a lot younger than Joe and still has her marbles.

    Should be entertaining to watch!!


  9. Here is a dispassionate analysis.


  10. This is also a realistic assessment


  11. The African descended have joined forces, get your asses in gear..

    https://youtu.be/iJm2sGuIFi4?t=11


  12. The Kamla Harris nomination merely continues the vicious vestiges of institutional racism in America.

    Like Obama, Harris is well within the mold of non-African Americans, as some on the right of Black politics have long described this artificial conglomeration of socalled “people of color”

    American racism, like racism in Barbados, cannot help but elevate a ‘not so Black’, or culturally Whites in dark skin, before a genuine African-American could to entrusted to be the figurehead or deputy, titularly, of the racist American imperium.

    More generally, it matters not how Biden and the corporate elites attempt to rearrange the seats on this titanic, it must go down.

    Certainly, no amount of political marketing can bend this historical arc.

    We have found that there are no measureable philosophical differences between elites of any stripe. For Harris is not only culturally White but is also a corporate Democrat, like she must be, to get the nod from the moneymen behind the scene.

    She also ticks the box with the Zionists. Being married to a Jewish man would have been a consideration of both Biden and the same Zionist moneymen from whence Trump gets his bankroll.

    Like Obama, Harris will be an even more entrenched conservator of the fascistic establishment.


  13. Very observant. I agree with this comment. The lighter the complexion, the less threatening we are perceived.


  14. @Waru,
    I checked your link on the Gambia. Very interesting. Gambia is a beautiful country.

    Somehow the Gambia, despite decades of mismanagement and absolute corruption, was able to maintain an exceptionally vibrant tourist industry. It is very similar in feel to the Caribbean and has always drawn tourists from Europe, especially during our long and cold winters.

    They appear to be offering citizenship to the African disapora.

    On another note the President of Ghana appears to be in a spot of bother.

    “His supposed silence on the alleged rot in his government has been construed as not just an endorsement of corruption, but a signal that he is neck-deep involved.”

    https://ghanaweb.mobi/general-news/akufo-addoiscorrupt-hits-social-media-as-president-comes-under-attack/

  15. William Skinner Avatar

    I hope we will be so clinical when the Indians, Syrians , whites and others begin to go after real political power in our country.
    All this pretty analysis of Kamala Harris makes very good reading.
    Save some for our own situation when it begins to blossom.
    I hope we are keeping our eyes on our own backyard. A word to the wise………..


  16. The next obvious step in American decadence will be demands for there to be another gay president. Obama being the first, according to Newsweek.

    This time with a first husband, if perceived to be male and a first lady if that president is perceived to be female.

    For this is the unavoidable result of the perverse identity politics which have driven Kamla Harris one step away from the White House.


  17. I get it donna you got the iceberg thing going on, but again why do you not think val demings would not have been a better pick/


  18. Pachamama,

    Gay people are humans and entitled to full human rights.

    Some of them occur in nature. Others are emotionally disturbed due to sexual abuse in childhood and still others do it for thrills or for money.

    Why should those who occur natually be excluded from public life?


  19. It is amazing how some, perenially entrenched in the politics of outposts of empire, continue to fail to see the intersectionality of corruption which happens at the centre of the hegemon and everywhere else.

    Real African-American activists, academics and public figures incuding Dubois himself, achored their local activities in an internationalism which served as a hammer to bludgeon the American fascist regime to make essential concessions.

    Nothwithstanding, we are to be forever reminded of a faux localization of geo-politics which has even less credence in a post globalization era.


  20. Val Demmings is not known nationally.

    Time to talk to my plants. They make far more sense than you and John.


  21. The very fact that Biden and his handlers limit their VP choice to one who is both a person of colour and female and ignore merit says it all.

    The Democrats are both racist and sexist, Biden’s tongue, loosened by the vagaries of old age just serves to confirm it in bizarre ways.

    Democrats need to lose badly in November and be forced to learn from their flawed logic.

    Maybe they can correct the errors of their ways but I doubt it as they have too much already invested in their beliefs.


  22. @ Mr. Skinner

    I hope you also noticed how the Bajan descendants of Indians and Pakistanis are abandoning their foreparents’ tradition of being itinerant salesmen, to take up professional careers or become landlords as they own several amounts of property around the island.

    I remember asking a then prospective Trinidadian law student of African descent, why so many Trinis prefer to study law or medicine. She said the Indians prefer to go to Indian doctors and lawyers, while Black people sought the services of Black doctors or lawyers. Her response may seem frivolous, but…………….

    Indians in Barbados have subtly developed their own ‘Barbadian culture.’ They are not known to associate with people or support businesses other than their own. They also assist each other financially.

    As their population increases and they continue to accumulate wealth in a Black majority country, they may want to assert their right to be recognized as Barbadians and seek representation in Parliament to formulate legislation so as to maintain ownership and control of that wealth amongst themselves……. and protect their ‘Barbadian culture.’

    It won’t be surprising, according to you, when they “begin to go after real political power in our country.”


  23. What is being done to Biden is criminal.

    It is elder abuse.

    Anyone hitching to this charade is also criminal.


  24. Donna

    We agree with your substative points.

    However, where we may part ways is when personal habits or identification can be weaponized to distribute power in the society.

    The same thinking goes to the selecting of a corporate Democrat, a socalled progressive, for the post of vice-president largely based on a perceived identification.

    If these are the standards you prefer, we would differ and seek comfort in more meaningful attributes.

    In these circumstances, we would have preferred the White man, Bernie Sanders, in a wheelchair, before the likes of Harris or Biden on horseback.


  25. Substantive


  26. @ John August 12, 2020 11:59 AM

    John,

    Since when did you become such a radical black activist?`LOL.

    Why don’t you admit that you support Trump because he has caused a terrible bloodbath among white Americans and is driving America into the abyss. Four more years of Trump, and white Anglo-American domination of the world will be over.

    Whoever wants to break the supremacy of the WASP chooses Trump the Destroyer.


  27. Donna if the plants make more sense than john I guess there talking back. I just want to say up front I am not a doctor but either your have a psychotic episode or the kids are mixing up your pills for some entertainment when the power is out


  28. “I checked your link on the Gambia. Very interesting. Gambia is a beautiful country.”

    sure is..

    a spotlight is being shown on all governments, they are answerable to the people who elected them.




  29. @ David

    Some very interesting developments at the Public Accounts Committee’s investigation of the Transport Board.

    I heard the financial controller, Felicia Sue is being investigated and was suspended immediately after returning to work from vacation.

    The former chairman ‘put some lashes in her’ during his interview by the PAC.

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/08/12/former-transport-board-chairman-points-fingers-at-financial-controller/

  30. William Skinner Avatar

    @ Artax
    I assure you that we have been monitoring this situation for over a quarter century. The young Indian population see themselves as Barbadians 100 % . They are socializing more and taking a very serious interest in current affairs.
    I think all ethnicities should get involved in the political process.
    My concern is that we spend so much time being experts on “ global” matters that we forget or ignore what is creeping up on us.
    As one who participated in electoral politics, I can say without fear that a lot of money is needed under our system to run a campaign.
    I say no more at this time.


  31. @ William

    In the 1960s and 70s, when there were not large number of Asians and Chinese, they were quite happy to be defined as black. They were members of the Society of Black Lawyers and those of us who worked in race relations, routinely included them as black when counting.
    There was a reason for this. Caribbean people, and in particular Jamaicans, would confront racist mobs and defend Asians and Chinese who were being attacked.
    It also worked in organisations. One of my functions was to travel the length and breadth of the country talking to ethnic minority organisations to look at their programmes to see who should get funding (the money came from the Gulbenkian Foundation, but they were fronting for the Home Office).
    In time, the Asians broke away and formed their own Society of Asian Lawyers, and even Society of Muslim Lawyers, etc. Now they have not only placed themselves as a cushion between whites and blacks, as in Durban, East Africa and elsewhere, they are in effect the biggest blocks to opportunities for Caribbeans.
    It is a well worked out strategy, worked on since the abolition of slavery. Just look at Trinidad and Guyana. Why do you think Barbados will be different?
    As Barbadians say, we take people as we find them. The only problem with that is by the time you realise what is going on it may be too late.
    I can give my trade as and example. If you go to journalism schools up and down the country black people are over-represented. But if you go in to newsrooms, there are rarely any black reporters or executives. Why is this? On the contrary, sometimes British television, BBC , Sky and ITN, looks like Indian television.
    I have a theory that I can tell who the employer is from the ethnic make-up of employees on the shop floor. I first became aware of this when once in a supermarket in Brixton (the UK’s answer to Harlem) and nearly all the employees were Asian while the customers were black. I wrote about this aft er the 2011 riots.
    Have a word with Caribbean people living in the UK.


  32. Waru thats the problem with barbados , people are sending things down in a pandemic and instead of welcoming it and allowing it in duty free if they are necessities they want their pound of fleshespecially for people on the front lines .. Canada post hasnt been sending things down for months because of covid my wife tells me, so things she regularly sends for family are just not sent.


  33. That’s just wrong Lawson, none of these things come cheap, most people are not even working, have no job and those who still have income should be receiving what they paid for and not gouged just for being able to afford to import a few items..


  34. On transnational political-economy corruption.

    It was none other than Kamala Harris as district attorney of California who oversaw the foreclosure of tens of thousands of people by One West Bank. A bank controlled by Trump economic henchman Manuchin, the current Secretary of the Treasury, we think.

    Included in the people foreclosed was an old woman with 27 cents outstanding on her mortgage. Manuchin had no charges filed against him for financial corruption by Harris. Instead, it was this same Manuchin who made a generous contribution to Harris”s senatorial campaign.

    This rasssoul woman is no better than the other Trumpian crocodiles within the corrupt political-economy swamp extending from Washington to Bridgetown.


  35. We see all types of people, mainly women, on state-sponsored American TV, full of glee that Harris has been selected.

    These are the same assholes who saw Obama as some sort of transformational figure.

    Obama came, went and left us with Trump the White backlash. This systems is unable to and will NEVER address any of the material needs of the masses of people.

    Nevertheless, it remains sickening to see the party lackies believing that something momentus occurred yesterday, what idiots.

  36. William Skinner Avatar

    @ Hal
    “ on since the abolition of slavery. Just look at Trinidad and Guyana. Why do you think Barbados will be different?”
    You obviously did not get what I was saying. I merely said that we spending a lot of time analyzing Kamala Harris. I said I hope we be just as diligent looking at our own issues. In response to @Artax I made the point that the young Barbadian Indians see themselves as Barbadians. I stated that they are very much into current affairs/ politics. I then said that money counts in politics. We can’t stop Barbadians from entering politics because of their color or ethnic backgrounds.
    What I can tell you is that with the vast wealth other ethnic groups control, and in our political system, they will have a serious advantage. And the BLPDLP will encourage them to be candidates. I say no more for now.

  37. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    Capitalism is a religion of money-worshipping. Today it has morphed into an extreme variant called STEROID CAPITALISM. In this system, the top twenty richest individuals have more wealth than several nations combined GDP. In this system, the paper economy is worth multiple times the real economy. In this system, profit is never enough for the shareholders. Companies can make super-profits and still laying off workers. I could go on and on.

    Greed, corruption, and all type of malfeasance thrive well in this system. I am surprised it hasn’t collapse under it own evilous way already.


  38. it’s a colonial devised corrupt system just suitable for corrupt black governments…it’s shelf life has ended as intended, just in time to rebuild and reconstruct a brand new but much less recognizable, well polished and an equally cataclysmic version and convince their potential victims how very beneficial it is to them.. .


  39. You do know the fools of parliament will sit still and allow a new system to be built around African descended people, so busy are they to preserve the dying corruption that they can’t see what’s coming..

    , I got a bottle of wine to break out for the occasion.


  40. @Pachamama August 12, 2020 10:50 AM “The next obvious step in American decadence will be demands for there to be another gay president.”

    Of all the 444 white men who have been President of the USA you really believe that not a fella was gay?

    You are such a poppit den! Wha’ happen you really, really think that powerful white men can’t be gay?

    I suppose that you are one of those people who believe that when Thomas Jefferson was widowed at 38 years old that he embraced celibacy for the next 44 years although we all know that there are no celibates in the 30’s, 40’s 50’s etc.

    But yeah. Powerful white men do not commit fornication with their black enslaved women.

    And I suppose that President Van Buren who was widowed in 1819 at 36 and never remarried, also embraced celibacy for the next 26 years…but wait in 1819 powerful wealthy white Americans still practiced slavery, and such men could still order an enslaved black woman to satisfy their lusts.


  41. How many of the rumoured to be gay presidents were Democrats?


  42. Lawson,

    There are many ways of communication. There is body language and sign language.

    My plants are large and green and flowering.

    Forty Acres

    You have described today’s capitalism perfectly. Just this afternoon I was thinking how just a few individuals are at present watching almost the whole world in dire straits knowing they could easily solve the problem.

    And I wonder what manner of a person could live happily doing nothing.

    I feel sorry for them.


  43. … and since the Republican Party was the anti slavery party, I suspect you won’t find many, if any Republicans who actually owned slaves.!!


  44. Pachamama,

    26 cents? Surely you jest! All the old woman had to do is stand on the street with a cup and she could have paid that off.

    That story is not believable unless the old woman was senile.

    And now I must research a story I heard last night. That story said that she recovered $18b in compensation from the banks for those who had lost their homes.

    Bo Biden was also said to have participated in those negotiations.


  45. The 26 cent fable
    Last month Politico reported that Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin’s bank “filed to take a 90-year-old woman’s house after a 27-cent payment error.” Ted Frank writes that four minutes of fact checking would have shown the story wrong. “A. Widow was never foreclosed on and never lost her home. B. It wasn’t Mnuchin’s bank that brought the suit….The story on its face made no sense. No court permits that kind of foreclosure, and banks lose money on the deal.” The story was widely spread in the media (CNN, Vanity Fair, The Hill) and popped up again at Mnuchin’s confirmation hearing for Treasury secretary.

    https://www.overlawyered.com/2017/01/mnuchins-bank-foreclosed-widow-27-cents-tale/


  46. @ William

    Maybe I missed the nuance, for that I am sorry. Unfortunately I do not explain in parables when it comes to Trojan Horses. I am told that when Billie Miler retired there was pressure to put up an Indian guy to replace her. Fortunately, they saw the light. I heard there was a very active Indian guy doing the donkey work.
    I know that style. They volunteer to do everything, they are always nice to people, they address you as doctor and professor, they buy you gifts for yourself and your kids.
    @William, none of this is new. It is an old tried and tested plot. They talk to each other. One little trick they work every Xmas in Barbados is making gifts to the Salvation Army, and Bajans say how wonderful these Muslims are.
    Think about it. Mot of our Muslims are of Pakistani heritage. In Pakistani just being a Christian can get you executed. Do you think a honest Muslim will travel from Pakistan to Barbados, and bring up his family to be tolerant of Christianity? Again, I say check the UK.
    Sunni Muslims do not like shi’ite Muslims, they kill each other, what do you think they will do with Christians, or even with those scantily clad women dancing to Soca at Crop Over?
    Do you remember the Muslim woman married to a Bajan convert. They both taught at the community college. Read what she had to say in the Nation. One BU reader said sometime ago they now live in the US. In brief, she said that Muslims will not accept black people even if they convert.
    @Wiliam, again I say check the UK. There is a constant row between Caribbeans, Middle East Muslims and those from the Indian sub-continent for control of mosques – and they are all worshipping the same God.
    And in case you wonder, I am not an expert on Islam, but these are all cases reported in UK newspapers from evidence given in courts.
    Bust we are on a black-majority blog in which the chairman allows a Hindu nationalist to come on and abuse black people. He does it, he says, because he believes in tolerance and free speech. Some people never learn..

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