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1980 under Prime Minister Edward Seaga, passed the Contractor
General Act in 1986 and set up the office of the Contractor General with the mandate to protect the integrity of the public procurement system. More recently, at the turn of the century, the PNP Patterson Administration responded to allegations of corruption by passing the Corruption Prevention Act (2001) and establishing the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption. Later, the same Administration passed the Access to Information Act, liberalized the media landscape and, along with JLP opposition, endorsed a Political Code of Conduct, designed in part to eliminate the incidence of political violence and to exorcise zones of political exclusion form Jamaica’s system of democratic governance. While such measures undoubtedly contained the potential of strengthening Jamaica’s national integrity system, they remained largely ineffective in stemming the tide of corruption – both perceived and real. Neither legislative reform nor institutional innovation led to effective law enforcement largely because of vested interests in sustaining corruption within the political leadership, the bureaucracy, the business elite and organized crime.
While the press widely reported Chambers’ attempts to go after ghost workers, lending credence to a popular notion that this was a reprisal murder by disgruntled unionists, Chambers’ efforts to revise key procurement contracts, which initially received far less publicity, may ultimately have been more significant. That action in particular may have frightened the shadow economy far more, with its contractual and political linkages with key public sectors.
General Act in 1986 and set up the office of the Contractor General with the mandate to protect the integrity of the public procurement system. More recently, at the turn of the century, the PNP Patterson Administration responded to allegations of corruption by passing the Corruption Prevention Act (2001) and establishing the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption. Later, the same Administration passed the Access to Information Act, liberalized the media landscape and, along with JLP opposition, endorsed a Political Code of Conduct, designed in part to eliminate the incidence of political violence and to exorcise zones of political exclusion form Jamaica’s system of democratic governance. While such measures undoubtedly contained the potential of strengthening Jamaica’s national integrity system, they remained largely ineffective in stemming the tide of corruption – both perceived and real. Neither legislative reform nor institutional innovation led to effective law enforcement largely because of vested interests in sustaining corruption within the political leadership, the bureaucracy, the business elite and organized crime.
While the press widely reported Chambers’ attempts to go after ghost workers, lending credence to a popular notion that this was a reprisal murder by disgruntled unionists, Chambers’ efforts to revise key procurement contracts, which initially received far less publicity, may ultimately have been more significant. That action in particular may have frightened the shadow economy far more, with its contractual and political linkages with key public sectors.
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