Christie not satisfied with drive against corruption

By Ken Chaplin

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

As the holder of the independent Anti-Corruption Commission of the Contractor General, Greg Christie is mandated under the Contractor General Act to monitor the award and the implementation of government contracts to ensure, among other things, that they are awarded partially, on merit and in circumstances which do not involve impropriety or irregularity. In addition, the contractor general is empowered to conduct formal investigations into matters that are associated with the award of government contracts, issue of government licences, tender procedures and registration of government contractors.

When Christie took office in 2005, he found considerable irregularities and partiality in the award of contracts which undermined the system. However, in nearly five years, he has brought the situation under control, but has not completely eliminated the problems. He is fighting on, especially in terms of special investigations.

Critical in the fight against corruption in the system is the monitoring of the contracts granted by 198 public bodies. The Office of the Contractor General is unable to monitor the award of contracts properly, unless the public bodies

submit their reports on time. Prior to Christie's appointment, few public bodies submitted reports on time, if at all. The OCG saw this laxity as a way of beating the system, so in October 2006 it introduced the Zero Tolerance Policy

and rigidly enforced it to force public bodies which were refusing to comply with the lawful requisitions of the OCG to do so and in a timely manner.

The result was a record 100 per cent compliance rate of the quarterly contract QCA) reports for the four quarters of 2009. Previously, the compliance rate was a mere 13 per cent. The policy apparently drove fear into the public bodies because failure to report on time would result in the automatic referral of the head of the public body for criminal prosecution. More than 11,000 contracts are now monitored each year, compared to 350 per year before the system was introduced. Christie says that the policy was part of a major plank of a strategic plan to secure a marked improvement in probity, accountability and transparency in the government contract award process. It has worked so far.

In the meantime, Christie has made some uncompromising comments in the 2009 annual report of the OCG which was tabled in Parliament last month. Of significance are the five special investigations which were carried out into a >number of procurement, licensing and contract award matters. The report said that the focus of the five special investigations was far-reaching as the OCG's enquiries delved into a surfeit of issues which marred the government's t and contract award processes. The scope of the investigation, says the report, involved matters which were connected with the issue and/or revocation of government licences, irregularities in the divestment of state assets as well as suspicions of impropriety, corruption and irregularity in the

award of government contracts, licences and permits. "It must be admitted that the publication of these reports of investigations took place amidst tumultuous challenges, some of which involved suspicious charges as to the jurisdiction of OCG and unfounded, uninformed and unsubstantiated accusations which imputed

an abuse of power and authority on the part of the OCG," Christie said in his usual colourful language.

However, in spite of the success of his Zero Tolerance Policy, Christie wants a new approach in the fight against corruption. In this respect, he has proposed the establishment of an all-encompassing independent national anti-corruption agency with the requisite investigatory and prosecutorial resources and independent powers to deal with all corruption offences in a novel, focused, professional, aggressive and significantly more efficient and cost-effective approach to that which now obtains. He also advocates the merger of the

Parliamentary Integrity Commission, Corruption Prevention Commission and the Commission of the Contractor General.

Notwithstanding his sometime overzealous approach, Christie is doing a job that needs to be done.

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Christie not satisfied with drive against corruption