SXMElections.com

PHILIPSBURG--The lack of transparency in government “disguises how checks and balances are working in a country,” said Director Professor Trevor Monroe, Jamaica’s National Integrity Action Executive Director and keynote speaker at the fourth annual Governor’s Symposium, themed “Governance: The Value of Checks and Balances,” held in The Westin St. Maarten Dawn Beach Resort and Spa on Friday.

The symposium was hosted by Governor Eugene Holiday.

Munroe highlighted for the gathering of government, corporate and civil society leaders a number of remedial actions to bring about transparency and effective checks and balances. Chief among those is “awareness building” in government institutions and the public. The media plays a “critical role” in bringing awareness.

Institutional reform is an action that must be taken, such as addressing inadequate transparency in political parties via regulations, said Munroe. He compared the lack of transparency in Caribbean countries with the United States and the United Kingdom, where campaign funding registries and donor names are easily accessible to the public.

St. Maarten does have regulations for financing of political parties. The National Ordinance on the Registration and Financing of Political Parties is in effect and under that law one political party that contested the 2014 Parliamentary Elections has been fined for not complying with the legally required submission of its financials to the Electoral Council.

To aid checks and balances in the community, more resources must be allocated to justice, law enforcement, electoral and auditing institutions, said Munroe. In his country, Jamaica, he said only one per cent of the budget was allocated to the Justice Ministry. In St. Maarten, the Justice Ministry has the third-highest allocations of the national budget, accounting for NAf. 66.2 million of the NAf. 445 million 2015 budget.

More funding and resources for the Justice system will bring about “more effective law enforcement” and an equitable allocation of justice, he said.

Transparency via checks and balances can be enabled through the development and enforcement of a code of conduct for government, he said. A call also was made for the drafting of whistle-blower protection legislation.

Another step to combat corruption and bring balance is the publication of all recipients of government contracts along with prices and related information. This simple action was instrumental in improving the rating of St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ position on the International Corruption Index, compiled by Transparency International.

For a small community such as St. Maarten, application of rules to enable transparency through checks and balances is paramount. “It is more important in a small society to apply the rules and it is also easier for the people to know the rules, because the society is small,” Munroe said.

Ally, not adversary

The Corporate Governance Council, an instrument of checks and balances, was faced with much “distrust” from government when it came into being more than half a decade ago, instead of being seen as a “trusted advisor,” said Notary Miguel “Mike” Alexander, who serves as an extraordinary member of the Advisory Council, at the symposium.

Alexander said the Council had been shunned through “misguided mistrust” and was seen as “an adversary” by government. The first Council “never got a fair chance to function properly by past governments,” he said.

To maintain checks and balances, Government must institute a dividends policy for its government-owned companies and have the Corporate Governance Council advise and weigh in on other company-related matters, said Alexander.

He called for existing rules and regulations to be applied rather than set aside, to foster good corporate governance and governance in general.

Ministers should not be allowed to have too much power to change or affect policy of government-owned companies, he cautioned. Alexander has served on the boards of such companies.

He said the right people must be placed in the right positions if the country is to prosper. To achieve that, he called for managing directors of government-owned companies and foundations to undergo integrity screening as well as the customary suitable test. Similarly, members of supervisory boards of directors must take a “crash course” about the function and functioning of the board, legal aspects and finance basics.

He used the example of the Corporate Governance Council to illustrate the resistance that can be faced by institutions striving to ensure checks and balances are performed in government and the wider society.

Participation for balance

Retired banker and Nature Foundation board chairman Jan Beaujon said groups and foundations coming together to effect change created a powerful instrument for checks and balances in the community. However, those organisations must be transparent to be trusted by the community and their members, he said.

Speaking of political parties as associations, Beaujon called on their general membership to play an active part in development of party policy, ideology and the establishment of codes of conduct. The onus should not be only on the party’s representatives in Parliament or Government.

Beaujon expounded on the role of the media in ensuring checks and balances in the community. The media are involved in “every aspect” of society and are the link between the authorities and the public. He called on government, especially, to be transparent as transparency through the sharing of information creates needed checks and balances for the community.

“Be open or there will be leaks,” he said suggesting that every organisation should have a communications policy to keep the public or its shareholders properly informed.

Societal imperatives

Governor Holiday, in declaring the symposium open, told the invitees-only event that checks and balances are “societal imperatives” and are “required to promote and frame decision-making to benefit the public good or the interest of the people.”

“Effective national governance responses” are needed “to chart a balanced and sustainable future for our people,” he said. Those responses should be “anchored in a comprehensive national development strategy that includes well-functioning checks and balances within our governance infrastructure.”

At its best governance is anchored in checks and balances and is an interactive partnership of trust and confidence between civil society, corporations and government, said the governor.

He called on attendees “to act on checks and balances as a societal imperative. I do so because I am convinced that it is our obligation to strengthen checks and balances as an essential public, corporate and civil governance pillar for the overall functioning of our society.”

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs said St. Maarten was a country filled with potential although there had been “bumps in the road.” He said government would continue to focus on integrity matters, especially with the pending addition of a new institution for checks and balances: the Integrity Chamber.