Former Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson and the former General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC), Rawlston Adams, were today released on $200,000 bail, each, after being charged with defrauding the DHBC.
The two men made their appearance at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Courts where Senior Magistrate Leron Daly read the joint, indictable charge to them. The charge states that between November 18, 2016, and February 1, 2018, at Georgetown, they conspired with each other and with other persons unknown to defraud the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation of $162,635,015 funds of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation Asphalt Plant Account for a project about a feasibility study and design for a new bridge which was not a function of the said Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation and for which the said money from the said Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation Asphalt Plant account could not be used.
They were released on $200,000 bail each and the matter was adjourned until February 15. Attorney-at-law Glenn Hanoman represented Adams while attorney-at-law Ronald Burch-Smith leads the defence team for Patterson.
The charge is in relation to an ongoing probe by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) over Patterson’s role in sole-sourcing a company which had conducted a feasibility study and design for a new Demerara Harbour Bridge.
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COVID-19 is not just a health and economic crisis, but also a corruption crisis… Countries with high levels of corruption also relied less on democratic responses to the COVID-19 crisis, leading to democratic backsliding in many regions of the world. More than a year into the crisis, with vaccines already available in many parts of the world, there’s a looming question of whether corruption will continue to undermine vaccine distribute too.
Transparency International
Last Thursday, Transparency International (TI) issued its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2020. Based on surveys carried out of knowledgeable businesspersons and country experts on the perceived level of corruption in the public sector, the CPI was compiled using 13 different data sources from 12 different institutions. For a country to be included, there must be a minimum of three data sources that respond to specific questions relating to:
(a) Bribery;
(b) Diversion of public funds;
(c) Prevalence of officials using public office for private gain without facing consequences;
(d) Ability of governments to contain corruption and enforce effective integrity mechanisms in the public sector;
(e) Red tape and excessive bureaucratic burden which may increase opportunities for corruption;
(f) Meritocratic versus nepotistic appointments in the civil service;
(g) Effectiveness of criminal prosecution for corrupt officials;
(h) Adequacy of laws on financial disclosure and conflict of interest prevention for public officials;
(i) Legal protection for whistleblowers, journalists and investigators when they are reporting cases of bribery and corruption;
(j) State capture by narrow vested interests; and
(k) Access of civil society to information on public affairs.
The 2020 CPI results
Most of the 180 countries surveyed have shown little or no progress in almost a decade to bring about improvements in their CPI scores. Two-thirds have scored below 50, with an average score of just 43. TI’s analysis shows that corruption not only undermines the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic but also contributes to a continuing crisis of democracy:
The emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic revealed enormous cracks in health systems and democratic institutions, underscoring that those in power or who hold government purse strings often serve their own interests instead of those most vulnerable. As the global community transitions from crisis to recovery, anticorruption efforts must keep pace to ensure a fair and just revival.
The countries that continue to score well on a scale of 0 to 100 are: New Zealand (88), Denmark (88), Finland (85), Switzerland (85), Sweden (85), Norway (84), Netherlands (82), Luxembourg (80), Canada (77), United Kingdom (77) and Australia (77). On the other hand, countries that scored poorly are: Somalia (12), South Sudan (12), Syria (14), Yemen (15), Venezuela (15), Equatorial Guinea (16), Libya (17) and North Korea (18).
For the English-speaking Caribbean, Barbados and The Bahamas continue to top the list with scores of 64 and 63, respectively. Guyana received a score of 41 out of 100 and a ranking of 83, a one point percentage increase over its 2019 score. It has overtaken Trinidad and Tobago which is now at the bottom of the table, as shown at Table I:
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The release of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2020 results comes at a time of unprecedented crises for the Jamaican people as well as for countries around the world. We face the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic downturn that has most of us struggling to make two ends meet, and a spate of violent crime and savage murders. The CPI 2020 results, therefore, come at a time when every Jamaican needs to do all in his or her power to make sure that every single dollar of public money is well spent, properly accounted for and not going down the drain because of corrupt or irresponsible conduct.
Just think how much more we could do to improve conditions in our schools and hospitals, for our teachers, health workers, and the security forces, for our pensioners, and for providing opportunity to youth in marginalised communities were we to come together to cut some of the $95 billion (estimated) lost or stolen by the corrupt and organised criminals each year.
In Jamaica’s case, the CPI – over the years – has placed our country among the two-thirds of countries in the world who score under 50, where 100 is the least corrupt and 0 is the most corrupt. At the same time, our country has uniformly ranked in the bottom half of states measured. Truthfully, we have moved marginally up and marginally down over the years but have remained in the absolutely unsatisfactory situation of being among the most corrupt, especially at a time when we need to make sure that every dollar counts. We continued to tread water beneath the surface of integrity. Hence, CPI 2018 saw us stagnant at score 44; CPI 2019 showed slippage to 43; and now, CPI 2020 has Jamaica’s score marginally improved to 44, with 68 countries performing better than us, including comparable CARICOM states – such as Barbados, Bahamas, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Dominica, Grenada – which all score above 50. Indeed, in the Caribbean, only Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, and Haiti score less than we do.
As has been the case in previous years, there were some significant positives, but these in large measure were cancelled by negative developments during the year. Among the pluses were:
1. The relatively transparent administration of the COVID-19 relief package despite some inadequacies noted by the auditor general.
2. The reaffirmation of the independence of our judiciary and their co-equal status with the legislature and the executive in the Supreme Court ruling that detentions under the states of emergency constituted an “egregious overstepping of the bounds of the powers of the executive”.
3. The trial and convictions of a number of Manchester Municipal Corporation officers in one of the most significant corruption trials within recent years.
4. The resignation of the mayor of St Ann’s Bay arising from public pressure relating to credible corruption allegations.
5. The unprecedented Consensus Agreement signed by the prime minister, the leader of the Opposition, and 20 civil society organisations to deal with crime, corruption, and violence.
6. The relatively free and fair general elections of 2020, continuing Jamaica’s high performance in election administration.
7. The commencement of integrity training, mandated by the prime minister, for Cabinet members.
At the same time, during 2020, there were significant minuses, some of them chronic, negating the positives achieved during the year:
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The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) today signed a US$50 million loan agreement to support COVID-19 response projects in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Member States.
The agreement was signed by CDB Vice-President (Operations), Diana Wilson Patrick and IDB Representative in Barbados, Juan Carlos De la Hoz Vinas.
The loan will provide economic resources to OECS Member States – Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
CDB’s Vice-President (Operations), Diana Wilson Patrick said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the specialised role that multilateral development banks, like CDB and IDB, play in coordinating development assistance and planning systematic recovery. We reaffirm our commitment to continued collaboration and partnership, to provide our Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) with essential financing, technical support, and policy advice to protect the Region’s most vulnerable people and build resilience against shocks like COVID-19.”
General Manager of the IDB Caribbean Country Department, Therese Turner-Jones noted, “Since 1977, the IDB has had a long-term collaborative relationship with the CDB. In this way, we are able to extend our mission of improving lives in Latin America and the Caribbean to those countries that are not IDB borrowing members but are certainly valued members of an important Caribbean sub-region. The high level of interconnectedness and interdependency between the vulnerable economies of our region has been underscored during this pandemic. Our continued support will help bolster the OECS response to the COVID-19 crisis and pave the way to recovery and greater resilience in the region.”
The loan agreement signed today will finance a programme to help reduce mortality and morbidity from COVID-19 and ensure minimum levels of quality of life and health for vulnerable people in the countries mentioned. In addition, it will provide support for Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs).
To achieve this, the programme focuses on three main components:
- Health – health response, case detection and monitoring;
- Social – transfer to vulnerable populations; and
- Economic – support for MSME financing.
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Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says even improved and amended procurement legislation would not have helped the Government save over $200 million on the Curepe Interchange project, as even with such legislation there were ways for corrupt politicians to use more taxpayers’ money.
“If what passed for competition then was allowed to prevail, you could simply have said that the job was tendered and the lowest bidder was $440 million and therefore you gave the contract to that bidder and not the one for $500 million and nobody in T&T would have had a problem with that,” Rowley said during the official opening of the interchange.
“But somebody would have walked away with $200 million more than what was required. I am sure that the contractors involved in this project made a profit.”
Rowley said the project came in at a final cost of $221 million and while he was not an engineer or a quantity surveyor, he “knew” the original project price was too high.
“I knew what was happening and I knew that if the contractors were told that you are not going to get the job at that price ($440m) and we are going back out to tender, they will give you a price that is far better,” Rowley said.
He said when the Government wanted to build the swimming pool in Laventille, the initial project cost presented by the Urban Development Corporation of T&T was $24 million.
“I run UdeCoTT so fast from the Cabinet with one question, if you were going to build a swimming pool in your yard, with your money, will you spend $24 million on it?” he said.
He said the finished pool eventually cost less than $5 million.
He said he tried to ensure that in his time in Government, it would not be a time for his Cabinet “to eat” but for the taxpayer to breathe.
“I don’t care what they say on Facebook, this Government has set the tone for honest government in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said to a smattering of applause.
Rowley said based on what they were able to negotiate with the Curepe project, the cost of every other interchange “going east” would be better.
“If we had to pay $440 million for this, the next five interchanges would have cost us over $2 billion, because we would have set the tone,” he said.
He said Government also saved some $3 billion on the contract from Golconda to Point Fortin.
“We knew and we said that that contract could be broken up into sections, so as to allow our local contractors to be a part of the tendering process,” he said.
Giving the project to one contractor had “benefits” for some people, he noted. He said the initial budget for that highway expansion project was $4 billion on the eve of the 2010 general election but it went up to $7 billion after the election.
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