The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The deputy prime minister yesterday asserted "there is no room" for the conduct that saw The Bahamas ranked as the region's worst when it came to paying "bribes of convenience".

KP Turnquest urged Bahamians to inform the relevant minister or permanent secretary of such conduct if they were shaken down for a bribe by public officials in return for accessing essential services.

Voicing hope that increased reliance on e-government and technology platforms to deliver these services would reduce the opportunity for graft and rent seeking, Mr Turnquest said the "21st century" Bahamas should not have to rely on corruption and under-the-table payments to incentivise civil servants to perform the jobs they are being paid for.

Disclosing that he not seen media coverage of Transparency International's report, Mr Turnquest said: "I can say this much: We have said from day one that we will not tolerate that kind of activity that we know has happened in the past.

"We have worked very hard to try to be efficient, to try to be transparent about what we do. We've installed and implemented technology solutions to try to take away some of the need for that kind of thing."

He added: "We want an efficient, well run, transparent service that works for the benefit of the people and, to the extent that there has been any need for a tip or the public feels there is a need for a tip or some kind of gratuity, they should bring that to the attention of the permanent secretary or to the minister, and I am sure it would be dealt with because there is no room for that.

"This is the 21st century. For God's sake we ought to be able to deliver services efficiently without the need for any kind of graft or any kind of incentive for people to do their jobs, and that's what we are working towards: A modern, efficient government utilising technology and digital services to streamline processes to help us deliver services we deserve."

Mr Turnquest was responding to Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer study, which found that The Bahamas leads the Latin American and Caribbean region for paying "bribes of convenience" to public officials so that "things are done more quickly or better".

The Transparency International report covers 18 nations, including corruption-riddled states such as Venezuela and five Caribbean countries, which includes Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana as well as The Bahamas.

Among the most troubling findings was that The Bahamas ranks ahead of crisis-torn Venezuela for paying "bribes of convenience". Some 41 percent of Bahamians who admitted to paying bribes said this was the reason for doing so compared to the 21 percent Latin American and Caribbean average.

Such bribes were described as payments "to get things done more quickly or better", meaning that they were intended to facilitate "queue jumping" at Bahamian government agencies and/or to obtain permits, approvals and documents (passports, driver's licences, Immigration cards) when applicants did not have all the supporting paperwork required or are here illegally.

"Interestingly, only 33 percent of bribe payers report having been asked to pay, while 20 percent say that although not explicitly asked, they knew that an informal payment is expected," Transparency International said of its regional findings.

The results provide an insight into how every day, low-level forms of corruption have seemingly become routine and ingrained in Bahamian culture. These include the practices of "buying public officials lunch" to ensure they perform functions they are already paid to do, plus more lavish gifts and payments depending on what is being sought and the associated difficulty,

The Transparency International findings, obtained from 1,007 telephone interviews with Bahamians conducted by the Public Domain polling firm earlier this year, also revealed that the proportion of Bahamians paying a bribe within the past 12 months had doubled compared to Transparency International's survey of The Bahamas last year.

While the 2018 survey found that one in ten Bahamians, or ten percent, admitted to paying a bribe during the prior year, that percentage rose to 20 percent - one in five - for the 2019 survey, indicating that the graft culture is getting worse rather than improving.

And The Bahamas was also ranked second in the Latin American and Caribbean region for "sextortion", with 24 percent of Bahamians revealing they had personally been - or knew someone who had been - asked for sexual favours in return for receiving public services including health and education. Only Barbados, at 30 percent, achieved a worse ranking.