I suppose that as a keen student of the law relating to employment and especially that of its termination, I ought to have focused today’s column on the ongoing retrenchment in the public sector, its accordance with fairness and its likely economic and social consequences for the nation. However, that discussion will have to await a future column; today I
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As if it were not enough to file a declaration of financial affairs and, in the case of members of parliament, a statement of registrable interests, every specified person in public life other than a member or staff member of the Commission is also mandated by Clause 45 (1) to report to the Commission the receipt (offer?) of a gift
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Of course the proof of the pudding will ultimately lie in the eating, but the Integrity in Public Life is not short on provisions designed to ensure the reduction of opportunities for specified persons in public life to profit from corruption. In addition to mandating the declaration of particulars by these individuals that we treated at length in the last
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The popular local reaction to the impending Integrity in Public Life legislation has been intriguing. Given the populist perception of politicians in general and our seeming inability to rein in the lawless conduct of some notorious sectors of society, cynicism naturally abounds. A fellow columnist and learned friend, in his column last week, categorized it as an attempt to legislate
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The principal technique employed by the Bill for combating corruption is to have specified persons in public life declare their financial affairs to the Commission or, where he or she is a member or staff member of the Commission, to the Governor General under Part IV of the Bill. Immediately, two observations may be made. First, it bears remarking that
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The current official imperative to establish machinery to modernize the statute that criminalizes corruption in matters of state has seemingly not met with universal acclaim, if I am to judge from a number of responses to my offering in this space last Sunday. While there are those who believe that corrupt behaviour among public officials merits the harshest punishment constitutionally
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“Didn’t we all grow up understanding that bribes and payoffs – – by whatever name or rationale – – were bad? And that people were supposed to be the focal point of society, not money?” ― Ray Bourhis, Revolt: The Secession of Mill Valley The current governing administration is persuaded that anti-corruption and transparency in public affairs merit a statute prohibiting and criminalizing
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