Corruption seen a regressive tax

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11: Graft in Government should be seen as an extra tax on foreign investors, a top Jamaican anti-corruption expert said this week.

And Professor Trevor Munroe said that looking at corruption as a tax, in line with the World Bank view,  makes it easier to resist — and beating it can boost the economy.

Professor Munroe, a lecturer at the University of the West Indies, said: “One study of foreign direct investment estimates that corruption is equivalent to a 20 per cent tax on foreign investors.

“Countries that improve or control corruption... can expect an average in the long run a four-fold increase in income per capita. Business grows —  on average it can make a difference of about three per cent per year in growth for the enterprise.”

Professor Munroe was quoted in the Cayman Islands Business Journal after he spoke in the Caribbean chain of islands, whose former Premier McKeeva Bush was arrested inx a corruption probe. He has yet to be charged with any offences.

Professor Munroe said that Caribbean countries tend to have a high perception of corruption – but that a review by the Latin American Public Opinion Project found that reported incidents of corruption did not bear out that view.

Link to poverty

He added that corruption in public life is linked to national poverty levels — with poorer countries having higher levels of corruption.

Professor Munroe said that – although he was not an American and had no insider information – he could access campaign contributions to failed US Presidential candidate Mitt Romney “with the click of a mouse.”

And he said that information on donors to the British Labour Party could also be accessed. But he added that- like Bermuda – people in the Caribbean were unable to find out who backed their political parties.

Professor Munroe said: “We should not have to speculate. The point that we should have campaign finance regulation in law that provides disclosure from big donors, who gives how much to which party and should ban, prohibit, unregulated financial organisations from giving money to political parties to fund election campaigns.

“The longer we take to plug this and similar loopholes, the more people will lose confidence in the rule of law, the justice system and ultimately the democratic system of governance.”