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It's distressing to read of the financial and construction tangle surrounding the court/police building being erected on Court Street. That whole project got off on the wrong foot, pushed as it was to make a showing before the December 2007 election. There was a rush at the time to make it look like there was real construction taking place on the site, even though there was no building permit - and one wouldn't be issued for over fifteen months.

Since then, the project has been plagued with enough trouble to make it a poster child for Sir Walter Scott's quote, "Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

The Auditor General - one Civil Servant who has shown clearly that he can't or won't be bullied - has uncovered a host of problems including: questionable decision-making in the selection of Landmark/Lisgar as the contractor in the first place; flawed adjustments to the contract; internal rifts over construction ethics; technical, procedural and financial anomalies and short cuts and ministerial attempts to block legitimate oversight and taint civil service principles.

In addition, it is alleged that the contractor made a $1,000 'charitable donation' to the PLP and then requested reimbursement from the government. Whether or not they were reimbursed, the audacity of such a request defies belief.

Any one of these on its own is cause for concern about the way our government does business. Taken together, they are an indictment of mammoth proportions.

In response, Premier Brown and Works Minister Burgess have launched ad hominem attacks on the Auditor General, apparently following the adage that the best defence is to go on the offence. They have publicly challenged the Auditor's authority and questioned his motives. In recent times he has twice been arrested - no charges ever filed - had his office put in boxes and moved while he was off the island, and even had his family subjected to political attacks. PLP drudges are now snooping around to try and locate and, if they can, intimidate whistleblowers who are bringing more scandalous behaviour to light.

A burgeoning bunker mentality

The attacks themselves are an indication of a burgeoning bunker mentality taking root. But while the government gives lip-service to "dignity at work," pressure continues on civil servants to break their Code of Conduct or, worse, the law. And legislation to protect whistleblowers, or provide access to information (thus making whistleblowers unnecessary) has languished on the government's back burner.

But the tables are turning. More people are finding the Auditor General to be more principled and therefore eminently more believable than government ministers who flout the law or mislead us. More ordinary citizens are expressing their disgust at the ad hoc policies, the declining standards of behaviour, the bullying and intimidation, the pointers to 'pay to play' and kick-backs, the deliberate non-disclosure of rightfully public information. More people inside and outside of government are exercising their consciences and standing up to and exposing ministerial misconduct.

That is the stuff of which Democracy is made and maintained.

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