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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 7/19/2018

Good Morning #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Thursday 19th July 2018. Remember you can read full articles by purchasing The Daily Nation Newspaper (DN), via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS).

MOTTLEY APPEALS FOR SUPPORT FROM BUSINESS COMMUNITY – Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has appealed for the continued support of the business community in her bid to pull Barbados back from the precipice of economic disaster. In a comprehensive address to the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) this afternoon, the Prime Minister said her Barbados Labour Party administration had inherited a Government that was “effectively in the Intensive care Unit” with regard to its perilous economic position, but she disclosed that urgent measures taken to date had so far managed to stem the “bleeding”. Mottley said her Government had moved to take control of the debt situation and a perilous foreign exchange position after reserves had declined to a dangerously low level. She added that while Barbadians feared involvement with the International Monetary Fund, action had to be taken to request balance of payment support from that body. She thanked the Social Partnership for rallying with her to come up with solutions to the many problems, while disclosing that the grouping which includes Government, the trade unions and the private sector, was still actively engaged in the process. he Prime Minister urged the business people to exploit new opportunities in the region, beyond the traditional countries. She said plans were in train for investment in “massive training” for young Barbadians in a “national first job initiative.” “I am asking you in the private sector to work with us to create those opportunities for apprenticeships for first job initiative…” Mottley said. President Edward Clarke said this was the largest attendance ever at a BCCI meeting and pledged the organisation’s support and commitment to work with Government on issues affecting the business community. He highlighted taxation, integrity legislation, infrastructural development and Customs and trade facilitation among the issues the BCCI wanted Government to address in the interest of commerce. (DN)

PM: GOVT NOT INTO VENGEANCE – Government will not be going after any of its predecessors for alleged wrongdoing. Contrary to a commitment made by Attorney General Dale Marshall QC several weeks ago, Prime Minister Mia Mottley on Tuesday said her administration “will not be consumed by vengeance”. However, she said if clear information and/or evidence is brought to prove corruption, her administration intends to investigate. Indicating that some Barbadians may want “blood”, Mottley, who also serves as Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment, sympathised with those people whom she claimed felt aggrieved and angered by perceived plundering. And while she said that she struggled with those feelings, for her it was not about vengeance but rather about setting a line in the sand for accountability. Her comments were made in the House of Assembly during the debate of the Integrity In Public Life Bill, 2018. “. . . And while we must make sure that there is accountability without doubt, this Government must never become so obsessed with anything that approaches a level of vengeance that it forgets to do what it has to do to move the people of this country forward in a way that is sustainable. “And that is my job, I believe, as Prime Minister of this country: to ensure that even though we hold people accountable, that this Government must never become consumed with wanting only to achieve a level of vengeance or a level of we gine get yuh,” she said. Noting that every individual was deserving of a second chance, Mottley iterated that whatever justice is pursued it has to be done on the basis of evidence. “And if the evidence is there we will deal with it,” she stressed. Mottley added: “I have no interest in vengeance but I have an interest in making sure that Barbadians receive the full opportunity for development. “And this is not to be interpreted as the AG not going ahead with the ones for which there is clear evidence. “ . . . . If there is clear evidence of malfeasance in public office, then he must act. If there is evidence for higher [than that], then he must equally act too, and there are instances that are still the subject of investigations.” (DN)

DLP FAILED TO DELIVER ON INTEGRITY, SAYS BRADSHAW – A ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) spokeswoman has strongly lamented that the former Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration promised much, but delivered very little in terms of integrity legislation. Member of Parliament for St Michael South East Santia Bradshaw issued the charge during yesterday’s debate in the House of Assembly on the Integrity in Public Life Bill. While suggesting that the measure was “long overdue”, Bradshaw recalled that before his death in 2010, former Prime Minister David Thompson had come to the electorate in 2008 talking about corruption in high places and had promised that “any administration he led would bring integrity legislation and a Freedom of Information Act, and all his ministers would sign a code of conduct”. However, she complained that “as the years passed, the last administration refused to uphold the principles that brought them to office” and as a result lost favour with the people. “The previous Government wanted us to believe a piece of legislation drafted in 1929 could be upheld in the case of any corrupt acts, but the fact that we are introducing this new bill, and carrying up the fines associated with it, is testimony that the Barbados Labour Party is taking this matter seriously,” said Bradshaw, who is also the Minister of Education. However, she assured that the Mia Mottley administration was not on any “witch- hunt”, even though it was determined to get to the bottom of “cost overruns, questionable awarding of contracts and corruption that occurred under the last regime [that] have created an unkempt Barbados that we need to put right. “We must do all within our power to ensure these things do not happen again. We have a shared vision to see the country do better, but if we want people to carry their weight, we have to lead by example. If we want you to do what is right, we must ensure that as the leaders of the country we put our houses in order too,” she said. During her contribution to the debate, Bradshaw, who is the Leader of Government Business in the House of Assembly, also announced that a joint committee comprising members of both Houses of Parliament had been set up to examine the various aspects of the Integrity in Public Life Bill. It comprises Attorney General Dale Marshall, Minister of Labour Colin Jordan, Minister of Energy Wilfred Abrahams, Minister of Elder Affairs Cynthia Forde, Member of Parliament for Christ Church South Ralph Thorne and Leader of the Opposition Bishop Joseph Atherley, with the Leader of the Senate due to appoint four members to this committee. “We will let the public know when this body will hold its meetings, which will take place in the Senate Chamber and be streamed live on social media and broadcast on CBC where possible,” Bradshaw added. (BT)

CLARKE MAKES A CASE FOR HIGHER MINISTERIAL PAY – A Government backbencher has made a case for ministers to receive higher pay. Making his contribution to yesterday’s debate on the Integrity in Public Life Bill, Member of Parliament for St George North Gline Clarke argued “people at the ministerial level must be paid better so they would not be tempted to indulge in corrupt practices”. At the same time, he said: “If an MP, senior civil servant or board member does not do the right thing, he [or she] should be brought before the courts. “That way, we would send a clear message that we are here to protect the Treasury,” Clarke added. The six-term parliamentarian and former Minister of Public Works in a previous Owen Arthur-led Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Government, noted that corruption usually started small, with actions such as “sending in a sick certificate when you know you are not sick and going to work and not doing your job properly because your position is permanent”. He also gave the example of “people receiving items such as housing or welfare [support] because of who they know, rather than because of a genuine need,” while emphasizing that “we have to stamp out corruption at all levels in our society. “People look at politicians as an example, and once we show them we are prepared to work hard for decent pay, then the public will do the same thing,” he added. However, the Government backbencher suggested that an independent body was needed to investigate corruption since “we have a system in which members of parliament are temporary officers, and senior civil servants like permanent secretaries, who are supposed to account for all practices within their ministries, do not always provide us with the information we need to investigate any corrupt practices we may discover”. During the debate, Clarke also pointed out that during the BLP’s term in office under the late Tom Adams between 1976 and 1986 there was “a code of conduct” that Cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, and board members had to follow. He also said during the Arthur regime between 1994 and 2008 in which he served, “the Cabinet Secretary gave us a code of do’s and don’ts, and we had experienced MPs and Cabinet members who sat with young MPs and ministers to advise them. “[However], I believe the last [Democratic Labour Party] administration did not get this kind of advice, and so they did as they liked,” he told Parliament. (BT)

ATHERLEY WANTS GOVT TO COME CLEAN ON HIGH PROFILE SACKINGS – The Mia Mottley administration is being asked to come clean with Barbadian voters on a number of high profile firings and departures from statutory corporations since taking office following the May 24 general election. While insisting his Barbados Labour Party (BLP) colleagues “are not naturally disposed to that type of victimization”, Opposition Leader Joseph Atherley said Government needed to assure the public it was not on a witch-hunt against public servants believed to be partial to the ousted Democratic Labour Party (DLP). “I think that an explanation is owed to the public because there is always public perception and this is very important when it comes to confidence in one’s elected officials,” Atherley told Barbados TODAY. “Persons could believe that Government has embarked on yet another campaign of victimization just as the other guys would have done. So in that case an explanation is really needed because part of transparency is explaining to the public what you are doing and keeping them up to speed,” he added in reference to the BLP’s campaign promise to be transparent. Since the BLP was swept to power in a crushing victory over the DLP in which it secured all 30 seats and 73 per cent of the votes cast, National Housing Corporation General Manager Lanette Napoleon-Young was sacked, along with Human Resource Manager Sheona Kellman and attorney Toni Jones-Patterson. Just yesterday, it also emerged that Transport Board General Manager Sandra Forde, who led the state-owned public transportation agency for the past eight years, had accepted a separation package, while two consultants, including Trinidadian David Bartholomew, had their contracts terminated with immediate effect. There have also been reports that Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) General Manager Doug Hoyte, who was also appointed under the DLP in April 2016, had been stripped of legal and financial responsibility related to the statutory corporation. In addition, all CBC freelancers and contract workers were told they would be terminated by the end of last month, while other contracts close to expiration would not be renewed. However, the administration has yet to give the reasons behind the sackings, and repeated efforts by Barbados TODAY to get explanations from the ministers and senior officers in charge have proved futile. Atherley acknowledged the need for ministers to choose staff to carry out their vision, but he insisted termination of staff must be justified. “I wait further to hear what is behind all of this. I won’t jump to conclusions about victimization but if it turns out to be the case then we will have to deal with it. I would really like to see us have a political culture in Barbados which experiences transformation to the extent that there would not be any type of victimization. “I think sometimes the political realities suggest that certain changes have to be made, especially in cases where persons are politically appointed. Such persons run the risk of being terminated when the administration is changed. However, when it comes to the public service, once persons behave in a disciplined and dutiful way they should not be touched,” he stressed, while advocating for a mechanism to dismiss underperforming civil servants. Notwithstanding, Atherley, who is yet to resign from the BLP despite crossing the floor a week after the polls, was emphatic in his defence of his current parliamentary colleagues. “I have heard one or two things, but I do insist that the guys that I know on that side, for the most part are not naturally disposed to that type of victimization. My knowledge of these guys who now form the administration is that they are not given to vindictiveness,” the Opposition Leader stressed. (BT)

WHITHER CBC? – The jury is still out on what state-owned entities the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration will shed or share ownership of in the next phase of its economic recovery plan. However, Prime Minister Mia Mottley today made it clear that whatever decision was taken would not be driven by what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) deemed necessary, but what was “good” for Barbados. She said the Social Partnership and the public would get an opportunity to share their thoughts on what public corporations Government should keep, privatize, or share ownership of. Using the Royal Barbados Police Force, the National Cultural Foundation and the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation as examples, Mottley said Barbadians must determine which entities were essential, highly desirable or optional. “Those comments are without prejudice as to what my Government will do, but I give you those examples to stimulate discussion in the country,” she told today’s Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) luncheon at a packed Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre. The Prime Minister said there were some tasks that had to be completed “in time to continue our discussions for the contractual loan that will come” from the IMF and concessional development funding from the Inter-American Development Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank. However, she insisted “we can’t be driven by what is necessary for the IMF. We have to be driven by what is necessary for our own good health”. The IMF has repeatedly recommended a reduction in Government expenditure, centred on cutting transfers and shedding of some state assets. Mottley hinted that the planned merger of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc and the Barbados Tourism Product Authority, in a partnership between the private sector and Government would not be the only one, stating that similar marriages would be necessary for other entities. However, she said this would not be in the immediate term since many state-owned enterprises did not have the same “depth and maturity” as the tourism sector. She told the business community the second phase of her recovery plan would begin at the end of August and run until July 2019, while the third phase would be executed between July 2019 and December 2020. There will be a fourth phase, the Prime Minister said, which would be “the wrap up” between January and June 2021. “We have to stick to the timeline,” she stressed. Mottley, who took over the leadership of Government just over seven weeks ago following the May 24 general election, urged Barbadians not to panic, insisting that “the covenant of hope is there to let you know what we value, what we will protect to our death”. However, reminded that the next phase of the economic recovery plan would focus on public sector reform, although she did not reveal her plans for the cutting public sector jobs. And while she stressed talks with the IMF could not be about what the lending agency wanted, Mottley indicated that while there were 1,900 employees in state-owned enterprises in 1966, the number has climbed to about 10,000 today. “We have reached that point where the consultation cannot be about what the IMF wants even if the timing was driven by the IMF. The consultation has to be about what Barbados needs,” Mottley stressed. “Phase two and three has to be about refocusing and restructuring those entities that we ultimately would agree upon in the next month, but taking the time to do it properly and to ensure that whether it is partnerships, investment and workers owning as much as anyone else do, whether it is outright sale, whether it is finding the different entity to deliver the particular service, or whether it is bringing proper management and getting greater efficiency on an existing entity, it has to be done,” she explained. (BT)

CHINA MOU – Medical professionals at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) will have further opportunities to develop their skills in vascular and orthopedic surgery and other specialized areas through collaboration with the Chongqing Medical University, one of the leading medical training facilities in China. The two organizations signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) this afternoon at the QEH, continuing a relationship that began in late 2016 when the first team of surgeons, nurses and physicians from Chongqing began a six-month stint here. “The initial MOU was aimed at securing expertise and medical support for a number of areas at the QEH that were undermanned, and the first team had three surgeons, three nurses and two physicians. They only stayed for six months, but the second team, which comprised two vascular and orthopedic surgeons, three physicians, who specialized in nuclear medicine, anesthesia and amputation and three nurses assigned to critical care and nephrology, stayed for a full year, and their tour of duty ended last month, Director of Health Planning in the Ministry of Health Danny Gill said. “However, one physician and two surgeons were granted extensions until July 31 to assist their colleagues who are due to come in from July 24, and they will provide medical care to Barbadians awaiting orthopedic and vascular surgery,” He added. He said China had also made two generous donations of medical equipment and consumables, including two anesthetic machines with a combined value of US$400,000. Barbadian medical professionals have also been benefitting from exposure to their counterparts in China, with having gone to Chonqing for specialized training in laparoscopic surgery, breast surgery and other areas, QEH’s Director of Medical Services Anthony Harris told today’s signing ceremony. Harris said he was pleased with the work the Chinese specialists had done in Barbados over the past two years. “They integrated themselves very well into our way of life in the hospital and Barbados, and in the last couple of weeks we have had reports from the heads of departments to which they were attached and everyone has been happy with their performance.” Meanwhile, Economic and Commercial Counsellor with the Chinese Embassy here Qu Ying, said: “We are glad to facilitate another first in the cooperation between Barbados and China, as this is the first time China has despatched a medical team to Barbados distributing free medical care, and I believe this operation will take the relationship between our two countries to another level.” (BT)

GOODING-EDGHILL WANTS A CARIBBEAN FBI – A Government backbencher believes the time has come for the Caribbean to have its own version of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the principal law enforcement agency and domestic intelligence and security service in the United States. “The time has come in this part of the region for us to consider an overarching body, something the equivalent [of] an FBI,” Member of Parliament for St Michael West Central Ian Gooding-Edghill said in Parliament yesterday during debate on the Integrity in Public Life Bill, without reference to The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), which was set up by regional governments back in July 2006 to manage CARICOM’s action agenda on crime and security. The Trinidad-based CARICOM IMPACS has direct responsibility for research, monitoring and evaluation, analysis and preparation of background documents and reports, as well as project development and implementation of the regional crime and security agenda. However, Gooding-Edghill, who recently came to Government following the May 24 general election in which the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) was swept to power, was adamant that no one was above the law, while suggesting that “we [the Caribbean] ought to start thinking seriously how we police everybody, because often times the political class can be a victim of rumour and innuendo, but there may be others out there who benefit, and we don’t know. “If you have a body adequately staffed with the powers to address these concerns, I believe it will help this part of the region,” he added. In making his contribution to the integrity debate, the BLP spokesman also called for local companies to be subjected to the proposed Integrity In Public Life legislation and for auditors to be placed in all statutory corporations. In fact, he argued that companies, whether private or public, preside over some degree of taxpayers’ interest, therefore the behaviour of their officials must be monitored. Gooding-Edghill also pointed out that statutory corporations receive millions in Government funding annually, while stating that there should be better accounting for those sums. However, while noting that the Integrity in Public Life Bill affects mainly Government officials, he said “in order to maintain the public’s trust it may be necessary for us to go a step further and consider amending the Companies Act to ensure that those persons who had a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interest of the shareholders – in this case the Government of Barbados or any interest that we have – that they who breach that trust should also be removed from directorships in this company”. As regards statutory corporations, Gooding-Edghill noted that between $10 million and $40 million in public funds was transferred to them annually, adding that for this reason alone each of those entities should have internal auditors. “The time has come when all statutory corporations, or anybody funded by the taxpayers of Barbados should have an internal auditor,” he stressed, adding that these internal auditors would make the work of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament easier. “There must never [again] be a situation whereby what went on at the National Housing Corporation could be allowed to go on and the Public Accounts Committee . . . had to struggle to get information,” Gooding-Edghill said. He acknowledged that the move to establish auditors and audit committees in each of these public entities would come at an additional cost to Government, but said, “I’m sure that the cost of corruption would far exceed the cost of an auditor”. (BT)

TOWN PLANNING TO INTRODUCE E-PLANNING SYSTEM – The Town Planning Department is getting ready to launch its e-planning system, which it predicts will reduce the processing time for applications by between 10 and 13 working days. News of this came from Acting Chief Town Planner, George Browne, yesterday as he addressed a stakeholders’ consultation to discuss the modernisation of Barbados’ town planning legislation, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre. Browne told his audience that the new system, which will be launched “within another week or so”, would greatly improve the efficiency of the Town Planning Department. He said it would facilitate easier tracking and management of applications, and allow for an integrated solution for the provision of geographic information. It would also facilitate access to third party tools and other systems and, he added, users would no longer be dependent on the physical file for application processing. The second phase, the Chief Town Planner revealed, would allow persons who have submitted applications to the department to be able to check the status of their applications online. “We are currently establishing the security of this system so that persons will be given a special code to access information. This will reduce the number of calls to the department and allow our officers more time to process applications,” he submitted. Browne disclosed that the department had also started the process of digitising subdivision boundaries and parcels, going back to applications which were approved in the 1970s. As a result, he said, that information was now available electronically. “With the digitisation, it breaks down various lands so that you will have an idea of those lands that were taken out of agriculture over the last 50 years, and it also allows for the creation of land classification on the actual parcel of land,” he explained. The Chief Town Planner said that this has resulted in increased efficiency and accuracy of site reporting and has also reduced the time frame for the preparation of site reports. The Department is also now scanning applications and, to date, more than 60 000 files have been scanned, Browne revealed. Additionally, staff is being trained, he said, in the use of Google Maps and web-based technology, which would allow officers to undertake desk top analyses prior to going into the field. (BGIS)

SEPARATION DEAL – The Transport Board and its general manager have parted ways. Sandra Forde, who led the state-owned public transportation agency for the past eight years has accepted a separation package. However, two consultants, including Trinidadian David Bartholomew, had their contracts terminated with immediate effect. These are the latest developments to hit the cash-starved statutory corporation following a meeting last Friday of its recently installed board of directors. When contacted the board’s chairman Gregory Nicholls confirmed that they had reached an amicable settlement with Forde, a former commercial banker. (DN)

BAJANS ENJOY PANAMA TREAT – It was ‘Panamania’ at Grantley Adams International Airport yesterday when the inaugural direct flight reconnecting Panama and Barbados touched down around 2 p.m. A watery welcome from the Barbados Fire Service, followed by entertainment from a tuk band and costumed dancers, greeted excited passengers as the majority touched Barbadian soil for the first time. Hours earlier, at Tocumen International Airport in Panama, a Barbadian voice at the controls had already stirred national pride. “Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain Marc Holford . . . .” It was the son of former Barbados and West Indies cricketer David Holford and his wife Marva, as he took Copa Airlines Flight CM 260 down the runway on a historic journey that would further cement ties between two countries indelibly connected by the Panama Canal experience. He continued: “It is certainly a pleasure to be operating this flight today to Barbados. With me is Captain Chetwyn Clarke; he is also from Barbados.” Clarke would later take the lead in flying back to Panama. At a window seat in the main cabin behind Holford was his proud mother, being flown by him for the first time in his 22 years as a pilot, with a bird’s eye view of the flight home. The night before, a very reserved Holford had told THE NATION though it would be another regular flight in terms of execution, it had that extra special feeling. “It’s a fantastic opportunity, exciting. Though I’ve flown into Barbados many times [with LIAT, Redjet and others], flying my mum will be a little bit of pressure,” he said with a laugh, glancing back at her. “But I think that will be special too.” Holford was also thrilled for Clarke. “We worked together at LIAT . . . and we also joined Copa on the same day in July 2014. But we have never flown together on Copa because we were first officers and the captains. So it’s a great opportunity for both of us.” Clarke, a pilot since 2007, beamed with pride and wore a broad smile at the Panama airport, his co-pilot in life, wife Lisa, at his side. The 35-year-old former national swimmer, son of Beverley Clarke and Winston Beckles, said: “I would definitely say this is the proudest moment of my career.” The flight took off at 10 a.m. Panama time (11 a.m. Barbados) with 144 passengers and seven crew members in the 165-seat capacity 737 jet. It passed over Colombia, Venezuela/Margarita and Grenada before touching down in Barbados at 1:50 p.m. Again, it was Captain Holford leading the way. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Barbados. The Fire Service will give us a special welcome . . . . Enjoy!” Just over an hour later, after a cocktail reception in the Grace Adams Suite, Captain Clarke lifted off at the controls on the return trip. (DN)

MORE BAJANS SEEKING HELP FROM HIV FOOD BANK – The charity that helps feed people living with HIV and their families is reporting a dramatic rise in the number of people seeking its support. And with students out on holiday for the summer, the HIV Food Bank is anticipating even greater demand on its resources. However, Community Nutrition Officer Stacia Whittaker has made it clear the rising demand did not mean there was an increase in HIV cases here. “We have seen more persons coming and being referred for food assistance, but an increase in referrals doesn’t mean an increase in diagnosis, it just means persons have fallen on tough times and they are now coming at this time for food assistance,” Whittaker said. “What we are anticipating now that it is summer time [is that] our clients will need our assistance even more [because] they won’t have the support of school meals to get them through the day,” she explained. The increasing requests for help is putting additional pressure on the already depleted supplies of the charity, which is reporting a drop in donations in recent times. Therefore, Whittaker appealed to the public to donate perishable and non-perishable food items and toiletries, including rice, biscuits, crackers, cereal or grains, dairy products, ground provisions, fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as canned or packaged soup and breakfast items, such as tea and hot chocolate. “Initially, even though we are assisting persons living with HIV who may be the head of a household, it will also benefit other persons within the home who can now get something to eat . . . . The magnitude that a donation goes is mind-boggling. These persons may have children and its impacts on them. “We have been having some donations but they have not been going as far as we would want them to go so that we can adequately provide the food hampers we need for our clients who come on a daily basis,” Whittaker stressed. (BT)

NCC IN ‘URGENT’ CLEAN-UP OF SARGASSUM ON THE SOUTH COAST – The National Conservation Commission (NCC) is working overtime to keep beaches on the south coast clear of the troubling sargassum seaweed this Crop Over season, according to General Manager Keith Neblett. The NCC boss said with an influx of visitors expected for the climax of the island’s primary cultural festival, all hands are on deck, including on weekends, in the tourism belt to clear the smelly weed, which has been a nuisance for the overseers of the island’s number one money earner, who are worried that it will turn away tourists. “The ones on the south coast yes, every day we have people deployed. Bay Gardens where we have the fish operations up there, Miami right down, Hilton, Savannah, Accra, all of those beaches. Yesterday, a lot of the beaches were primarily clean except there was a lot at Bay Gardens,” Neblett said on the sidelines of Operation Save Our Selves, a community outreach, public education and learn-to-swim programme for people ten years or older. “Every once in a while you see something coming in at a particular point, [and] when that happens we do that [clean up] . . . and we are working to make sure that a lot of key areas that Barbadians and tourists would go are kept clean,” he explained. It is a delicate operation for the most part, he said, because this is where the turtles nest, and now is nesting season. “We know that a lot of the beaches are turtle nesting sites on this part of the island so we are very mindful to minimize the use of any equipment, whether it is at Drill Hall, Browne’s Beach or some of the areas as it is turtle nesting season,” Neblett said. The NCC has had an ongoing programme to clear the weed off the beaches, and has had assistance from Government agencies and the private sector, including Sandals and the Williams Group of Companies. However, it is a battle against nature with which it has difficulty keeping up. Therefore, the general manager said, after Prime Minister Mia Mottley declared the invasion a national emergency, the state agency boosted its efforts, even going as far as calling the army to help fight the war. “We have an ongoing programme in terms of the removal of the sargassum on the beaches. This we have been doing the last three months. It also intensified when the Prime Minister indicated that it is a national emergency where we also got the support of the Barbados Defence Force,” Neblett said, adding that the recent inclement weather provided a small degree of relief which did not last very long. “Luckily with the bad weather we had last week . . . it has pushed out a lot of the seaweed but it is back at some of the beaches.” (BT)

SPECIAL SITTING OF CCJ IN ST VINCENT ON FRIDAY – A ceremonial sitting of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in St Vincent and the Grenadines will be the final in a series of events commemorating Mr Justice Adrian Saunders’ elevation to the office of CCJ President. The event will be held at the House of Assembly in Kingstown at 1 p.m. Friday in Saunders’ home country. This event will be broadcast live on the internet on the CCJ’s website at www.ccj.org. The CCJ President stated, “It is with much anticipation that I return to my home country to preside at this first sitting of the CCJ in St Vincent and the Grenadines. While I am a son of St Vincent and the Grenadines, I have become a true Caribbean man, living in so many of our nations and working for over two decades in service to the region. However, it is always a distinct pleasure to be recognised in the place that is your first home”. Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, MP, will head the list of speakers who will pay tribute to Mr. Justice Saunders. (BT)

STOP THE GUNS! – One of Barbados’ largest private sector groupings is calling on Prime Minister Mia Mottley to implement a comprehensive strategy to tackle the issue of illegal guns. In a direct appeal this afternoon to the country’s leader, President of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Edward Clarke said he was especially concerned that the island continued to lose a number of its future leaders to a life of crime and violence. And with just about three weeks to go before the climax of the country’s premier festival, and with several shootings, some fatal, in the last few weeks alone, Clarke said he was worried that the gunplay could discourage people from visiting Barbados, delivering a blow to the bread and butter tourism industry. Barbados recorded 31 murders last year, and is on track to match this number this year, with 17 as of July 13, some of which were gun crimes. Addressing this month’s BCCI luncheon for the first time in his capacity as president, a concerned Clarke said he feared if “the recent lawless gun related and violent incidents across Barbados by some element of our youth” was not urgently and forcefully addressed it would affect all aspects of the society. “These actions continue to erode the core values of our society, and threaten to undermine the lives of all of our people. These wild west type activities, if not stopped immediately, will negatively impact economic gains that we have achieved through our cultural events and tourism gains for all of Barbados,” he warned. “Barbadians on a whole are extremely concerned with the trend, and there needs to be a comprehensive strategy to have illegal guns removed from our streets of Barbados. That is a must do. It must happen,” he insisted. The business executive also called for an expansion of the community policing programme “so that our police force can work closely with the communities and continuously monitor the known hotspots across the island, and the events across the island especially at this Crop Over season, Prime Minister. “The last thing we want is people staying away from the cultural events at this very happy time for us,” he told Mottely who was at the luncheon to deliver her first address to the BCCI in her capacity as Prime Minister. However, said Clarke, perhaps the “bigger issue at hand” was that Barbados was “losing a generation of young males, and now unfortunately there seem to be a growing number of females joining this group”. He also pleaded with the packed room of business officials at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre to “do better” in their effort to help in the fight against crime. “I say to all of us here today we can do better and we must do better as a society to ensure that we provide opportunities for our youth to be gainfully involved in some activity for the betterment of our country. We cannot afford the present to become the future,” he warned. In turn, Mottley said Government was aware that law and order was a critical component for investment in the struggling economy, which she was currently focused on rescuing. And she gave the assurance that while tackling the fiscal challenges, “first and foremost”, there would be greater focus on ensuring law and order was maintained. “Without law and order your investments will come to naught. And we are conscious that Barbados can withstand many things but it cannot withstand an explosion in gun violence, automatic guns, and it cannot withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. So we start first by humbling ourselves and knowing what we cannot withstand,” Mottley said. She said the National Security Council, comprising the Prime Minister, the Attorney General, Minister of Home Affairs, the Commissioner of Police, the Comptroller of Customs and other relevant officials, met yesterday during lunch, but she would not provide details. “Our role is not to operational, but our role is to ensure that the resources and the cooperation are there, and we are satisfied that there are things that have to be done in the Budget. We spoke about the need to reduce the backlog and we made resources available which will be operational, I was told, by September, even in the absence of a functioning court space,” the Prime Minister told the business luncheon. She explained that critical to the process was the timely and effective handling of the backlog of thousands of court cases, starting with those relating to murder and shooting with intent, followed by robbery, rape and burglary. “We are committed to that, and we have also committed to having every case from July 1 last year heard expeditiously and then having every new case heard within six to nine months in this country in those five categories I just referred to. “People will not play with you if they know they are going to face sanctions quickly and urgently,” she reasoned. (BT)

PINE’S CRY – When 81-year-old Lionel Burgess of The Pine, St Michael talks about the state of the two bedroom Government structure he calls home, tears come to his eyes. The passion is palpable as he lists the repairs needed to make the house comfortable again. “I was living here now 13 years and . . . my ceiling mash up so the rats does come and go throughout the ceiling,” an emotional Burgess told Barbados TODAY, a day after Prime Minister Mia Mottley expressed concern about the standard of public living in The Pine and some other communities across the island. “When the rain come the water does come right to my door. My house need big repairs and it is becoming a problem now,” he stressed. While there are clear signs of disrepair, including watermarks on the ceiling and a bathroom that shows its age, Burgess’ home is not the most decrepit there is in the community. However, the conditions in which he resides can be replicated several times over in the urban community, one of the most deprived in the parish. And he was not alone in having the discomfort of having to share a home with rats, as another resident, Cecelia Worrell, also spoke of the concerns about rodents. “We need repairs. If I don’t be careful the rats would come through my back door, and also the windows in the front are coming out. We can’t get a repair done to the house and I don’t know why. The houses are terrible,” Worrell said. It is because of such conditions that the residents are holding Mottley to her word that she will “do right by our people” with respect to housing. Resident and shop owner Rhonda Hollingsworth is among those looking forward to some attention being paid to the homes in The Pine. For much too long, she said, tenants were neglected while their homes deteriorated. “These are the old model houses, these houses want repairing bad. I don’t understand how we are paying water, light and rent and still aren’t comfortable in the houses we live in because we have to shift around,” Hollingsworth told Barbados TODAY during a visit to the community yesterday. “I agree with the Prime Minister, some of the houses out there are really bad, but then there are some that good as well. “If they are not coming to give us repairs then money should be deducted from our rents because it now means we have to buy material and pay someone for the service,” the disgruntled resident said. A day earlier, while addressing a stakeholder consultation at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre on the reform of the Town and Country Planning Act Cap 240, the Prime Minister made specific mention of The Pine as she lamented the state of overcrowded, low-income housing districts. “We have a situation in The Pine, in Wildey [St Michael], in Silver Hill and Gall Hill [Christ Church], and we wonder why we have the social problems that we have without recognizing that we have literally participated in the calcification of Government policy and programming over the years,” Mottley said. In painting a picture of the claustrophobic conditions in which the tenants live, she contended that the houses, built in the 1950s and 1960s, were not as wide as the platform on which she was standing at the time to deliver her address, but were housing “three and four generations of people”. “In the absence of effective planning, people have done what they wanted to do in order to accommodate the overcrowded aspects of those housing [units]. When I go through some of those areas, and I think in particular of The Pine, it is the closest thing to a favela that you would see,” she said, adding that “we have an urgent obligation to do right by our people, both in terms of density and functionality and aesthetics, with respect to our housing”. However, Hollingsworth said the problem began with the National Housing Corporation (NHC), which she said provided little or no assistance when approached for help. “When you call the people from National Housing sometimes they don’t turn up, then you have to buy your own equipment to fix your houses. It is a very poor system. “You would call and say, well, your electric wants fixing and they would say, none is available. We need to be comfortable in these houses. I know they are Government houses but you can’t be paying for something that is no good. People live in these houses now for a number of years and I feel they should look into it. “I would like to see the blocks painted in one colour. Things in the country are hard but I would like to see around our homes look nice because dogs don’t live in The Pine, and I know Ms Mottley is doing all she can to make people comfortable right now.” (BT)

DJ POSTS BAIL IN THE SUM OF $900,000 – A second man from a group of six charged in connection with the seizure of 800 pounds of cannabis, has been released from jail. Earlier, Ryan Oneal Griffith, of Lucas Street, St Philip, was unable to secure the $1 million bail amount imposed by Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant during his first court appearance on June 20. However, this morning the magistrate accepted the three sureties totaling $900, 000, which were presented by his attorney Steve Gollop. The 44-year-old DJ/promoter is accused of committing a preparatory act for the purpose of trafficking cannabis, as well as trafficking and importing of the illegal drug on June 14. The charges against Griffith are indictable and can only be tried in the High Court. As part of his bail conditions, he must now report to the District ‘C’ Police Station every Monday and Thursday before noon with valid identification and must not apply for a passport or leave the country without the permission of the court. His co-accused 50-year-old David Edward Forde, of Risk Road, Fitts Village, St James, was the first to secure $900, 000 bail earlier this month with conditions. In the meantime, four others – 54-year-old Raoul Hardat Singh, of Strathclyde Drive, St Michael; 19-year-old Joshua Aaron Singh, of No. 24 Coral Land, Haggatt Hall, St Michael; 50-year-old Richard Trevor Nurse, of Fifth Avenue, Holders Land, Brandons, St Michael and 46-year-old Dale Eugene Gill, of No. 26 Oleander Drive, Enterprise, Christ Church – remain on remand at the St Philip penal institution charged with the same crime. They are scheduled to reappear in the District ‘A’ Magistrate’s Court on July 27. (BT)

VINCY ORDERED TO STAY AWAY FROM COMPLAINANT – A Vincentian man, charged with assault, will make his next appearance in the District ‘A’ Magistrate’s Court on November 12. Dillano Gregdon John Olive, of Station Hill, St Michael, is charged with assaulting Danielle Boden on June 29, occasioning her actual bodily harm. He denied the charge when he appeared before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant today. With no objections to his $3,000 bail, he was released with a warning to stay away from the complainant until the matter is adjudicated. (BT)

FIGHT IN COURT – Court proceedings took a violent turn this afternoon as two of four men turned on each other in the docks of the District ‘A’ Magistrate’s Court. After 23-year-old Malcolm Marlon Archer, of Sweet Street, Lowthers Hill, Christ Church, 25-year-old Ramone Sharome Henderson Griffith of the same address, 23-year-old Shaquille Oneal Orlando Cumberbatch, of 3rd Avenue Parris Gap, Westbury Road, St Michael and 28-year-old Rashad Kemar Moore, of Vauxhall, Christ Church, entered the dock, Archer said he wanted to put in an application for bail, while telling Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant that before he found himself in “this predicament” he was gainfully employed. However, his bail application came to an abrupt halt as a fight erupted between him and Moore. Officers rushed to part the two accused, as their fight spilled out of the docks, forcing onlookers to scamper to safety. The incident ended as quickly it began, although one of the accused could be heard saying, “I don’t want he near me” even after the fight had ended. The men are jointly charged with unlawfully wounding Rosche Chandler with intent to maim, disfigure or disable him or to do some serious bodily harm to him. They are also accused of entering Chandler’s home as trespassers and stealing $23, 598 worth of items, including eight rings, a bracelet, three cellular phones, two hats, a bag, three fire sticks, a pair of slippers, two chains, two pendants, four pairs of shoes, four watches and $1,600 cash. It is also alleged that they had a firearm, a hammer and a knife when the offences took place. They return to court on August 13. (BT)

LEGAL BATTLE – Collis King has been hit for six but not by a batsman. The effervescent former West Indies cricketer says he is “deeply hurt” that he is now stuck at home after his English deportation on a technicality surrounding a visa application. He is locked in a legal battle against Britain’s strict immigration laws that has left him separated from his British wife, Beverly, and unable to return to England to play league cricket for Dunnington in Yorkshire. When NATION team visited him at the St Leonard’s Boys’ School where he coaches, King’s disconsolate look and sombre mood told the story of a man that feels let down by the country that has been his adopted home for the last four decades. (DN)

FOCUS ON WORLD CUP 2026 – Argentina, one of the most successful countries in the history of the FIFA World Cup, is coming on board to assist Barbados national Under-17 team in their quest to qualify for the 2026 competition. With that particular team [Under-17] being used as the pilot project for the 2026 World Cup scheduled to play in the United States of America, Canada and Mexico respectively, Argentina ambassador to Barbados, Gustavo Pandiani, during an interview with the local press this past Sunday at the Argentinean Embassy, said his embassy was willing to partner with Barbados’ government in an effort to help the BFA prepare for the World Cup in eight years’ time. Pandiani revealed that he and Barbados’ Minister of Sports John King had been in talks and would soon put their signatures to an agreement called Co-operation on Sports. This, Pandiani said, would give the talented Under-17 team an opportunity to visit Argentina and learn as much as they can. The diplomat has already been in talks with BFA president Randolph Harris and technical director Ahmed Mohammed. “We are working with John on a very important project, which is taking the Under-17 national team to Argentina to train and to have like an educational and motivational trip. The idea is for them to get ready for the 2026 World Cup… That means three guys [countries] from CONCACAF are going to be out of the qualifiers, and that means more room for the Caribbean countries to go to the World Cup. “I am working with Ahmed the coach, Randy Harris [president], in order to prepare a good trip for them [Under-17 team]. Today they are sixteen, seventeen-year-olds, so in eight years they are going to be in the prime age to play at the World Cup. And I have to tell you I’ve seen every game here and the best team you have is your under-17 team. We are going to do everything we can from the embassy to help. “I had a meeting with Minister King and his sports division and now we are waiting for the formalities because it is an agreement between two countries. But it is going to be soon and with the agreement, we are going to put these two countries together,” Pandiani said. Instead of 32 teams, the numbers will increase to 42 qualifying spot that will be up for grabs in 2026, as nations across the globe compete for a chance to feature in the most prestigious competition in football history. The Barbados national team will need all the professional help it can get if it is to stand any real chance of playing football at that level. Argentina have won two World Cup titles in 1978 and 1986 and have been runners-up three times in 1930, 1990 and most recently four years ago in 2014. The South Americans will no doubt be able to share a vast amount of experience and knowledge with the Bajans, considering Barbados has never qualified for a world cup and will be vying for that 2026 qualifying spot against the likes of Trinidad and Tobago who qualified for the 2006 World Cup held in Germany and Jamaica Reggae Boys who did so back in 1998. Barbados and Argentina have 50 years of diplomatic relations and Minister King said he wanted the island to have the best possible shot at qualifying for the World Cup. “We have to look at the age that we get people involved in sports especially football. We have an under-17 team that is really doing well right now and I think the focus should be to make sure that in 2026 when the World Cup is here, that under-17 team is given the best opportunity to form our national team at that point in time and represent us at the World Cup,” King said. (BT)

FLICKERING LIGHT – Former Barbados and West Indies opening batsman Philo Wallace says the recent Test series between the regional team and Sri Lanka and then Bangladesh show there is light at the end of the tunnel even though it may be flickering. The West Indies drew the three-match series with Sri Lanka, and whipped Bangladesh in the two-match Test series which began a week after. As a result of their comprehensive victory against Bangladesh, the West Indies moved up a step on the ladder from ninth to eighth place on the International Cricket Council (ICC) rankings after being ousted from that position by Bangladesh earlier this year. “I think there is light at the end of the tunnel but it may be flickering. Our problem is how to get that light illuminating over all areas of our cricket. We played a three-Test series against Sri Lanka and two Tests against Bangladesh, the team turned in some solid performances on pitches that helped our fast bowlers. We were, however, let down by our batsmen throughout both series and this is a cause for concern,” Wallace told Barbados TODAY. The former Barbados captain said while he did not think the team was improving as fast as it could, a sign of consistency has begun to creep into some aspects of West Indies’ cricket, and if this continued at all levels it should help propel their game forward. “The bowlers have been consistent in their line and length, even though they are having a problem with no-balls, the selectors are being consistent in their policy because they have kept most of the members of the team together for a long period. The team has got to perform consistently as a unit if they are going to take the West Indies back to being a force in international cricket again. A major problem at the moment is that the batsmen are not clicking together. A batsman might score a hundred, or two batsmen score half-centuries in a match, and the others do not make a significant contribution. As a result, the team is bundled out for a low total. “For example, when we look at the series against Sri Lanka, in the first Test at the Queen’s Park Oval where the team amassed over 400 runs in the first innings, there were contributions down the line, Dowrich (Shane) stood out with 125 and received support from Jason Holder batting at number seven and Devendra Bishoo and Kemar Roach. We were dismissed for a low score in the second innings of the third Test against Sri Lanka and again in the second innings of the second Test against Bangladesh. Cricket is a team sport, the West Indies will only reap success if all of the members of the team are making regular contributions. Our cricketers must understand this as we chart the way forward,” the former hard-hitting opening batsman said. Wallace said he was pleased with the recent form of fast bowler Shannon Gabriel and expressed his delight at the manner he created problems for the Sri Lankan and Bangladesh batsmen with his pace, line and length which he described as an upward trend for the West Indies’ cricket. “What I like most about Gabriel is that he is also getting the ball to swing which makes him a very dangerous bowler because he is bowling at 90 miles per hour and also swinging the ball,” Wallace said. He was also pleased with the support Gabriel received from fellow pacers Roach, Holder and to a lesser extent, Miguel Cummins, who Wallace said bowled without luck in both series. Wallace lauded the groundsmen for the pitches they prepared in the Test series against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, describing them as “sporting and providing assistance to the fast bowlers”. He, however, raised the question about the West Indies’ batsmen ability to cope on these pitches. “It is one thing to call for fast pitches. But can our batsmen cope on these pitches when the opposition bowlers are generating pace and bounce? One of the roles Jason will have to play as the leader of the team is to instil in the minds of the batsmen that they have the skills required to cope with the bouncing ball from fast bowlers. Some people feel this is the role of the coach and the assistant coach only but I do not share that view. The captain as the leader of the team has a key part to play in making his players believe they can cope with any situation on the field of battle,” Wallace said. According to Wallace, even though Holder was not as aggressive a captain as he would like him to be, the young skipper was continuing to learn the art of captaincy. “Jason at this stage of his captaincy is not as aggressive as some West Indian captains of the past but he is still learning the game. He needs to be a bit more aggressive as a captain, but in my view, he is leading the team well. I think within a couple of months we will start to see him evolving as a leader. Once he continues to do what he is doing at the moment, the results will start to come in his favour. He will undergo a stern examination of his captaincy when the team goes to India and Bangladesh later this year. Not only him, the team’s mettle as a unit away from home is going to come under inspection during their tour of the subcontinent,” Wallace said. (BT)

RISE IN SECURITY – In light of recent violent incidents at entertainment events, organizers of RISE: Soca Kingdom featuring Machel Montano and Super Blue on July 31st at the Kensington Oval are assuring patrons that they are taking extra security measures to ensure safety. That guarantee was given by event producer Mastermind Creative Productions. Speaking on the behalf of the group Kirk Brown updated the media and sponsors on the preparations for this year’s event at a press conference on Wednesday. He told Bajan Vibes that patrons could expect ‘military like’ security explaining that they were not taking any chances – even loitering on the outside would not be accepted. “There will be six lines for easy entrance and security will be outside as well,” Brown said. In what organizers are expecting to be the biggest event in the Crop Over season Mastermind Creative Productions, have joined forces with international promoter Jay Upscale Marketing and Promotions, with support from the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. to bring Machel Montano back to Barbados for this year’s Crop Over festival, as a stop on his worldwide Soca Kingdom Tour. Brown assured that they were ready for an event of this magnitude as all the necessary groundwork has been laid. “We have been fine tuning our strategy and our plans as it relates RISE and each of our skill sets will be brought to bear to create an extraordinary experience. It is our pleasure to bring Machel, Super Blue and the best of Crop Over 2018 together on one stage for a splendid display of Caribbean unity through music,” Brown remarked. Machel and Super Blue will headline the show with a 90-minute set and will be joined by other acts including International Bashment Soca Monarch and reigning Party Monarch King, Lil Rick, and reigning Sweet Soca Monarch Red Plastic Bag and the island’s top deejays including Ras, DJ Indian and Chris Gayle, Dave Smooth and Bill Gates, Salt and Don, John Doe, and Alvin Toppin. “We know Machel and the rest of the cast will deliver a fantastic show – of that there is no doubt. What we as the organizers are working on is ensuring that the event experience matches that high energy and class. Patrons will get the value they deserve from this production and we are really excited to see all that we have been working on for the people of Barbados and the Caribbean, unfold,” Brown said. (BT)

READY TO RISE WITH MACHEL – Preparations are well underway for the highly anticipated Cockspur Rise Soca Kingdom, powered by 98.1 The One. The event, which was launched this morning at Kensington Oval, will be headlined by Machel Montano and Super Blue out of Trinidad and Tobago. An all-star Bajan cast is also on the cards. Cockspur Rise Soca Kingdom is being produced by Mastermind Creative Productions, a group of stalwarts in the entertainment industry with over 80 years’ experience. Kirk Brown, who spoke on the behalf of the group, promised a fantastic show for all. “I’m really excited about this production. We are looking to go bigger and better, set the bar even higher. We are looking at past mistakes of other events and learning and improving on that. So setting up earlier, better VIP, better access and so on. It may seem small but it’s really important,” he said. (DN)

For daily or breaking news reports follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook. That’s all for today folks. There are 165 days left in the year. Shalom! #thechasefilesdailynewscap #thechasefiles# dailynewscapsbythechasefiles

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teachanarchy · 8 years ago

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The corruption of the Zuma regime has now reached scandalous levels but it was entirely predictable given the ANC's past.

The African National Congress (ANC) which has ruled South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994 is once again in crisis. The President, Zuma, faced a no-confidence vote on 18 April but because the opposition parties demanded the vote be conducted by secret ballot the issue has been referred to the constitutional court so the whole process has been postponed. The reason for demanding a secret ballot is that many of the ANC MPs see Zuma as a liability and a threat to the ANC. They might vote against him in a secret ballot but fear to vote against him openly. Such open defiance would forfeit their chances to keep their snouts in the state trough which provides rich morsels in the form of rake-offs on government contracts, business opportunities and chances for promotion.

The immediate background to the present crisis was Zuma’s firing of the finance minister Pravin Gordhan. Gordhan, was respected by the international capitalist class and his dismissal led to a 16% collapse in the Rand, and the downgrading of SA debt to junk status by 3 of the most important rating agencies. The firing of Gordhan, however, is only the latest move in a longer campaign which Zuma has waged to install a compliant agent in the Treasury.

Zuma’s battle with the Treasury first broke out in December 2015 when he sacked the then Finance Minister Nene. Nene, like Gordhan, was also respected by international capital. Zuma replaced him with an unknown placeman Van Rooyen. This produced a collapse in the value of the currency so that within a few days Zuma was forced to climb-down. He sacked Van Rooyen and brought in Gordhan who had previously served a successful term as Finance Minister. The 15 months since his appointment have brought a recovery in the value of the Rand and had prevented SA’s debt being reduced to junk status. The relationship between Zuma and the Treasury has, however, been uneasy. Gordhan stood in the way of Zuma’s plans for issuing massive state contracts for such things a nuclear power plants and government controlled bodies on which there could be fat rake-offs for politicians. Zuma tried to remove Gordhan by, bringing corruption charges against him, however, the charges were so ridiculous that in November the case was dropped. The irony of Zuma trying to pin corruption charges on Gordhan is that Zuma himself has 873 corruption charges against him, which he still has to answer.

These manoeuvres, which are widely seen as Zuma’s attempts to loot the Treasury, have brought about a crisis in the SA political class. Since the ANC victory in the 1994 election the control of the country and the class struggle has been managed by a tripartite alliance of the ANC, the South African Communist (so-called) Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Recent events threaten to further undermine this alliance. Both the SACP and COSATU have called for Zuma to resign. Senior figures in the ANC have also turned against the President. The ANC Secretary General Mantashe called on Zuma to resign, while the Deputy President, Ramaphosa, called the sacking “totally unacceptable.” Senior members of the ANC now see Zuma as a liability who could split the organisation.

The ANC has become a patronage machine spawning a web of corruption and thieving, which even by bourgeois standards is spectacular. A prosecutor’s report entitled “State Capture” chronicled how the Gupta family, with whom Zuma is closely connected, have either controlled or attempted to control cabinet appointments or influence ministries in decisions and the issuing of contracts. The Guptas are Indian capitalists who came to SA in the 90s and have made millions out of state contracts through their contacts with the government. The report implied that they had captured the state. Zuma attempted unsuccessfully to prevent the publication of this report. An example of corruption and patronage, which the report describes, is the story of a coal mine which Glencore, the Swiss mining company, was forced to sell to Tegeta, which happens to be owned by the Guptas and Zuma’s son Duduzane. Apparently the mining ministry threatened Glencore with a fine in a dispute over coal prices. Secret meetings were held in Switzerland and eventually the mine was sold to Tegeta. ESCOM, the state controlled electricity generator, which is controlled by the government, sets coal prices, and phone records show a flurry of contacts between the head of ESCOM and the Gupta family at the time of the sale. When banks refused to advance loans to Tegeta ESCOM advanced the company R600m ($45m) in advance payments. The whole operation has been fabulously lucrative for Zuma’s son and the Guptas. Ralph Mathekga, an independent political analyst, says that the Guptas have created a pipeline from a stream of contracts that is so long and complex that the network is now entrenched 1. An example of attempts to control government appointments which the report details, is how immediately before finance minister Nene’s sacking in December 2015, one of the Gupta brothers offered the post of finance minister to the then Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas! To help Jonas make his decision, Gupta offered to deposit R600m ($45m) into his bank account and asked if Jonas had a bag big enough to carry off R600 000 in cash! Jonas refused, and although initially he retained his position as Deputy Finance Minister, he has now been sacked along with Gordhan.

Behind all these shenanigans is a dispute between different factions of SA capital. The so-called urban faction which is more closely linked to international capital and the rural faction who wish to use the state and government spending to enrich themselves. This dispute was made clear by Zuma himself who branded Gordhan as an agent of white monopoly capital, and accused him of preventing radical transformation of the economy and a more equitable distribution of wealth. The Zuma faction stands for profligate state spending and self-enrichment of the political class and their hangers-on. This is what Zuma understands as “equitable.” Hence the ANC itself understands the dispute as a quarrel about which type of capitalism to adopt.

Inequality and impoverishment

It is, of course, necessary for the ANC in general, and the Zuma faction in particular, to pretend they are concerned about the unequal distribution of wealth and the wretched condition of the working class, since the “Freedom Charter” which the ANC adopted as their programme in the mid-1950s promised equitable distribution of wealth. This was to be achieved by nationalisation of the mines, banks, monopoly industry and land. These demands have been revived by ANC’s political enemies such as the “Economic Freedom Fighters” who are now a force in parliament, and demand their implementation.

Inequality in SA is more or less the same as it was at the end of apartheid. By some measures it is worse. The top 5% in 2016 earned 43% of the total income whereas under apartheid in 1993 they earned 38% 2. 47% of South Africans live below the national poverty line of $43 per month. The number of people living on less than $1 a day has doubled from 2 million in 1994 to 4 million in 2006. Unemployment, which underlies these figures is now 27%, which amounts to 8.3 million people without a job. Youth unemployment is 50% 3. Only 6 million people pay tax and there are now 17 million South Africans receiving social grants to survive 4; this out of a population of 50.7 million means a third of the population lives on state handouts! This is the inequitable distribution of wealth which the ANC has achieved after more than 2 decades in power.

The ANC was brought into government to rescue SA capitalism from the chaos into which the apartheid system had led it. But it was brought to power in the interests of SA capitalism as a whole, and SA capitalism as a whole saw such nationalisations, called for in the “Freedom Charter”, as suicidal. Consequently during its 23 years in power the ANC has quietly forgotten the demands of the “Freedom Charter.” Instead it has done the opposite. State assets were privatised, enabling politicians to enrich themselves, whilst government spending was cut and foreign investment encouraged. The ANC has, in fact, rescued SA capitalism. It has achieved the lifting of sanctions, the reintegration of SA into the world economy and flows of foreign investment. It has more than doubled the size of the SA economy and doubled the average growth rates achieved under the apartheid regime. All this has, of course, been achieved through massive exploitation of the working class.

Class struggle

The ANC used the struggles of the working class to propel itself into power. Some of the richest men now in government controlled major trade unions themselves and manipulated workers’ struggles using workers as foot soldiers in the battle with the apartheid regime. The alliance of the African nationalists with the African workers, which existed in the struggle against apartheid, was always a deception. The present Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa is a typical example. He was leader of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and led strikes in the apartheid era. Once power was achieved he converted himself into a major shareholder in the platinum miner Lonmin. Lonmin, we should remember, not only exploits miners but shoots them when they strike for increases in pay as at their Marikana mine. Once the ANC achieved power it was exploitation as before for the workers who had helped them into office. Generally the ANC rule has elevated a narrow echelon of ANC leaders and politicians into the ranks of leading South African capitalists while betraying all its promises to the working class. The ANC government is simply the guarantor of capitalist order.

Subjection of the SA working class to the bourgeois nationalist forces of the ANC has been a tragic mistake for which the price is now being paid in sweat and blood. The justification for such a subjection put forward by Stalinists and Trotskyists is now totally discredited. We have shown in previous texts how all the arguments they advanced were based on a view that the national bourgeois struggle was progressive and workers should support it 5. The SA developments since 1994 have illustrated the disastrous consequences of support for the nationalist struggle.

The most dramatic example of the bourgeois nature of the ANC and its attitude to the working class was the massacre of 34 striking miners at the Marikana platinum mine in August 2012 6. The miners were demanding a tripling of wages which the capitalists considered quite unacceptable so the police were sent in to gun them down. This event, more than any other, shows beyond all doubt which side of the class divide the ANC and its henchmen in the tripartite alliance, the SACP and COSATU, are on. Such an event cannot be swept under the carpet as the ANC has tried to do. Many have understood its meaning and defections from the ANC and COSATU have occurred. Workers themselves have created new unions not politically aligned to the ANC and not affiliated to COSATU. In addition they have recently set up an alternative union federation.

The National Union of Metal Workers (Numsa) which joined striking platinum miners in their strike in 2014 7 refused to support the ANC in the 2014 election and has threatened to set up a new political party to oppose the ANC. It also called for the implementation of the “Freedom Charter.” This was seen by COSATU as an attempt to undermine the tripartite alliance and consequently the management of SA capitalism. Although Numsa was the biggest union in COSATU it was subsequently expelled from the federation. Numsa has since become the core of a new union federation, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) which was set up and registered in March this year. It is independent of the ANC and was set with leading members of COSATU defecting to it. So far 21 unions have affiliated to it.

SAFTU press release describes the latest sacking of Gordhan and the downgrading of SA debt to junk as evidence that SA is turning into a “failed kleptocratic state.” It threatens a protest movement against the Zuma regime consisting of a challenge to Zuma in the courts for not upholding the constitution and, if necessary, a general strike. All this is, of course, within the SA legal system and the “Labour Relations Act” of 1995 enacted by the ANC. Like labour relations legislation in most capitalist countries this act makes striking difficult and stipulates procedures which must be followed and also makes workers liable for dismissal and prosecution if these procedures are not followed.

State capitalism and trade unions

These developments show that although workers are understanding the nature of the ANC and the existing trade unions and parties which have cooperated with the ANC they are taking the path of demanding the implementation of the “Freedom Charter” and the setting up of alternative unions. From the point of view of a real transformation of society workers’ experience in the central capitalist countries have shown both these projects as leading to dead ends.

The “Freedom Charter” 8 which calls for sweeping nationalisations is a call for state capitalism not socialism. The system which existed in the Soviet Union was falsely described as socialism whereas it was in reality state capitalism. Socialism can only be created with the abolition of wage labour and ending of the means of production taking the form of capital. The means of production need to be socialised, converted into social property, in a free association of producers producing for human needs. The system needs to be controlled by workers councils with revocable delegates. Nationalisation represents the transferring of the ownership of capital from one set of persons to those controlling the state and does not in any way affect the relationship of the workers to the means of production. This relationship remains one of labour to capital. What is somewhat ironic about this demand, is that those organisations now raising it admit that the SA state is controlled by a gang of criminals who not only thieve from the state but shoot workers when they demand increases in their wages as at Marikana. How having a pack of thieves and murderers in control of the entire economy would benefit workers takes some explaining. Although the new trade unions are not affiliated to the ANC and appear to have a certain amount of independence, as we can already see they are still firmly within the framework of SA labour law. SAFTU for example is applying to the authorities under section 77 of the Labour Relations Act for permission to hold a general strike! The new unions will become the negotiators of the sale of labour power just as the unions in the central capitalist countries. This role will inevitably cause them to become tools of capital. This is because any permanent organisation of the working class can only negotiate the sale of labour power. Working for better conditions within the present system of wage labour entails recognising the logic of the system. This is to recognise the need for profit and hence the exploitation of workers to produce this profit. The section of capitalism in which the unions operate should therefore become more profitable so that more crumbs can fall to the workers. The unions thus become defenders of the national capital and defend its need for increased efficiency, competitiveness etc. The alternative is wildcat strikes outside union and the bourgeois legal framework controlled by workers themselves via mass meetings and strike committees. The key to success is extension of strikes to other sectors. These are the very things which the state legislation prevents and the new unions are complying with.

As we wrote in our article about the Marikana massacre 9 the alternative to the horrors of capitalism is; “…the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system and the ending of wage labour, a path which no union will take. The only organisations which can take such a path are political organisations. The struggles of workers worldwide desperately need political orientation towards the construction of higher social form of production. This means the class struggle needs to be given a revolutionary orientation. There is a desperate need for a global political organisation of the working class.” That need seems all the more pressing as this rotting capitalist society’s contradictions deepen. CP

1. Reported in Financial Times 21/11/16. Mathegka’s book is entitled “When Zuma Goes”.

2. Leibbrand, M; Finn & Woolard (2012). "Describing and decomposing post-apartheid income inequality in South Africa". Development in Southern Africa. 1. 29: 19–34. doi:10.1080/0376835x.2012.645639.

3. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/south-africa/youth-unemployment-rate

4. Reported in Financial Times 6/4/17

5. See http://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2012-03-01/anc-%E2%80%93-a-hundred-years-in-the-service-of-capital

6. See article on Marikana http://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2012-08-25/south-africa-striking-miners-massacred-by-police

7. See our article http://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2014-03-16/class-war-in-south-africa

8. Drafted by the Stalinist so-called Communist Party of South Africa.

9. See http://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2012-08-25/south-africa-striking-miners-massacred-by-police

#africa #african national congress #world history #government #politics

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therightnewsnetwork · 8 years ago

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Ukraine’s Former Top Spy Goes After a New Enemy: Corruption

KYIV, Ukraine—Ukraine’s former top security official has gone from tracking down Russian spies to fighting what he perceives to be the country’s greatest threat—corruption.

“The question is, are we going to survive or not?” Valentyn Nalyvaichenko told The Daily Signal from his offices in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.

Nalyvaichenko, 50, is the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, which is Ukraine’s successor agency to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic’s branch of the KGB, the Soviet Union’s main security agency.

“At stake is survival of the country,” Nalyvaichenko said. “At stake is whether we’ll finally get rule of law and a functioning state instead of chaos, corruption, weakness, and not [being] capable to defend our territory and the country. So, at stake is the country, its independence.”

During his interview with The Daily Signal, Nalyvaichenko wore a well-appointed suit and tie. He spoke fluent English, evidence of his university degree in linguistics.

His affable demeanor and emotive manner of talking hinted more to his background as a diplomat and member of parliament than his years in charge of Ukraine’s successor agency to the KGB.

Nalyvaichenko led the SBU for the first time from 2006 to 2010. He took over the security agency for a second time on Feb. 24, 2014, two days after deposed former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia in the closing days of the revolution.

Nalyvaichenko has also served as a member of parliament and as Ukraine’s deputy minister of foreign affairs.

Valentyn Nalyvaichenko says he was fired from his leadership position at Ukraine’s top security agency due to his anti-corruption investigations. (Photos: Courtesy of Karyna Samokhvalova)

Nalyvaichenko’s 2015 departure from the SBU was controversial. In June 2015, while the security agency was investigating high-level Ukrainian officials for financial crimes, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko sacked Nalyvaichenko from his leadership post at the SBU.

Today, Nalyvaichenko is the leader of two upstart anti-corruption political platforms: the Justice Civil-Political Movement, and the Nalyvaichenko Anti-Corruption Movement.

“Our people, our common people, are suffering because of corruption, corruption at the top,” Nalyvaichenko said, pounding his fist on the table for emphasis.

“I really like what [Winston] Churchill said in the Second World War,” Nalyvaichenko said. “‘If you’re going through hell, keep going.’ If we’re corrupt it doesn’t mean we have to say, ‘OK, we’re a failed state.’ No, it’s not true.”

Purge

True to his diplomatic roots, Nalyvaichenko recently traveled to Washington to present evidence to Congress about Russia’s involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine and to press for U.S. assistance in anti-corruption efforts.

As part of his anti-corruption platform, Nalyvaichenko has called for the FBI to investigate the financial crimes of Ukraine’s current and former political leaders.

He also wants U.S. and EU prosecutors to oversee the adjudication of corruption investigations, and for the U.S. to press Ukrainian officials to make Ukraine’s newly minted National Anti-Corruption Bureau independent from the executive and judicial branches.

“The ideas of freedom and independence are very Ukrainian,” Valentyn Nalyvaichenko says.

Nalyvaichenko said Ukraine has a chance to “show for the whole world, especially to the Russian people, that there is an opportunity, there is a plan B, to such nations after the Soviet Union time to be democratic, to be not corrupt, to live in a not corrupt state, to be independent.”

“Ukraine belongs to the Western world,” he added.

Nalyvaichenko added that Ukraine has “several months, two or three months” to show real progress in anti-corruption measures before Western partners begin to break ranks on measures such as maintaining punitive sanctions against Russia.

“It will be no tolerance from the new administration in the United States,” Nalyvaichenko said. And next year, “there might be many changes in the European Union,” he said. “That’s, I think, what is at stake when we’re talking about the European Union and the United States.”

Within Ukraine, Nalyvaichenko’s strategy is to reach out to civil society leaders working at the grassroots level. He wants to convince Ukrainians to believe in the democratic process, despite a quarter-century of oligarchic thug rule after the fall of the Soviet Union.

To that end, Nalyvaichenko’s two anti-corruption organizations—which comprise 10,000 activists across Ukraine—have provided pro bono legal assistance to more than 3,000 Ukrainian citizens involved in court cases against allegedly corrupt government officials.

Nalyvaichenko’s groups have also given free medical care to more than 9,000 civilians in the war zone.

“If you would like to stop Russian aggression, if you would like to get back not only territories but people … we have to show them what?” Nalyvaichenko said. “Believe me, not Kalashnikovs and not tanks. We have to show them a better life.”

Lifestyle

That better life has not yet materialized for many Ukrainians.

For one, the hryvnia, Ukraine’s national currency, is currently less than one-third its value against the dollar from before the revolution. Wages have not concurrently risen to match the falling currency, dramatically reducing Ukrainians’ spending power.

Also, corruption still taints almost every aspect of Ukrainian life. University students in Kyiv, as an example, say it’s still common practice to pay their professors a bribe to pass exams.

According to an October 2016 public opinion poll conducted by the International Republican Institute, and funded by the government of Canada, 30 percent of Ukrainians surveyed who had visited a doctor in the previous 12 months said they paid a bribe for service.

Among those who interacted with the police, 25 percent said they paid a bribe.

A large part of Ukraine’s economy is off the books—what Ukrainians refer to as the “shadow economy.” Ukraine’s Economic Development and Trade Ministry said the shadow economy was 40 percent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2015.

“To reboot the country [we need to] get new people with absolutely different minds and mentality into the governmental offices.” —@Nalyvai_V

This black market economy robs the government of valuable tax revenue. It also leaves many returning combat veterans, many of whom were drafted, no legal recourse to recover their jobs at the conclusion of their military service.

Many veterans previously worked off the books and were paid in cash so their employers could skirt payroll taxes.

According to the 2016 International Republican Institute study, 72 percent of Ukrainians surveyed said the country was moving in the wrong direction, while 11 percent said the country was on the right track.

As a point of comparison, a year prior to the revolution in May 2013, 69 percent of Ukrainians surveyed said the country was moving in the wrong direction, and 15 percent said the country was moving in the right direction.

According to the same poll, 73 percent of Ukrainians disapprove of Poroshenko’s performance as president, and 87 percent of Ukrainians have an unfavorable opinion of their parliament.

Nalyvaichenko said he no longer has faith in Poroshenko.

“For me this is not personal,” he said. “Whoever becomes president or prime minister is immediately part of a corrupt and not transparent system. Immediately they are reproducing the same Soviet or simply corrupt practices and environment … So, to get rid of that, to dismantle, to change the system, to reboot the country [we need to] get new people with absolutely different minds and mentality into the governmental offices.”

A New Fight

Nalyvaichenko is among a new breed of Ukrainian reformers who have emerged after the 2014 revolution.

Among Nalyvaichenko’s allies is former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who resigned as governor of Ukraine’s Odesa Oblast in November. The move was a protest against what Saakashvili claimed was stonewalling by Poroshenko and the majority of Ukraine’s political class in implementing anti-corruption reforms.

Saakashvili has since launched his own anti-corruption, opposition party called Wave.

“We had a revolution with lots of casualties,” Saakashvili told The Daily Signal in an earlier interview. “And every time a revolution happens, people have a right to expect revolutionary changes.”

One bright spot for Ukraine is its budding civil society. Across the country, political activists and humanitarian workers, including many millennials, have enabled the spread of democratic norms and are pushing for government accountability at the grassroots level.

“Across the country there is real willingness at the local level, at the grassroots level to stop corruption,” Nalyvaichenko said. “Fifteen or 20 years ago it was unimaginable that Ukraine would have such a powerful civil society.”

He continued:

I remember my parents and how modest the family used to be. How we young, young kids in Zaporizhia and other regions dreamed about another life. And to really have a chance with a free market, with the rule of law … for our children to create a new country with more opportunities. Our better future is here, and we should fight for that. I will not take no for an answer—from anyone.

Sacked

As head of the SBU, Nalyvaichenko endeavored to purge the security agency of its Soviet KGB past. He booted many personnel who had served in the SBU when it was the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic’s branch of the KGB.

Nalyvaichenko spearheaded an effort to open up the SBU’s KGB archives, launching fresh investigations into Soviet crimes in Ukraine, including Joseph Stalin’s organized mass famine in the 1930s known as the Holodomor.

He also hunted down and expelled Russian spies in Ukraine who were working for Russia’s successor agency to the KGB, the Federal Security Service of Russia, or FSB.

“With SBU, what I started with was to stop KGB practices,” Nalyvaichenko said. “I was the first and only chief of the SBU who actually started to detain FSB officers in Ukraine.”

The intent of Nalyvaichenko’s personnel scrub at the SBU went beyond security concerns. He wanted to shed the agency of its “Soviet mindset.”

To fill out the SBU’s thinned ranks, Nalyvaichenko tapped young political activists and reformers who had no living memory of life in the Soviet Union.

“That is my approach and my understanding of how it could be done in all the country,” Nalyvaichenko said, explaining how his SBU scrub could be used as a model for nationwide reforms.

In order to rid Ukrainian politics of its “Soviet mindset,” Nalyvaichenko says a new generation of political and business leaders is needed.

The solution to beating corruption in Ukraine, according to Nalyvaichenko, is to elevate a new generation of political and business leaders.

“Let the generation shift happen in Ukraine,” Nalyvaichenko said. “For the new generation to be in the offices, to let them finally rule the country … it’s high time to finally stop with old practices.”

Nalyvaichenko’s second term as head of the SBU came at a tumultuous time for Ukraine. In the months following the February 2014 revolution, Russia launched a hybrid invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, ultimately annexing the territory.

Russia followed up the seizure of Crimea with a proxy war in the Donbas. A combined force of pro-Russian separatists and Russian regulars was on the march in eastern Ukraine in 2014, and there were worries then that Ukraine could be cleaved in two, or that Russian forces massed on Ukraine’s borders might stage a large-scale invasion.

In Kyiv, the post-revolution government was at the time trying to establish its legitimacy and follow through on the pro-democratic promise of the revolution.

Meanwhile, officials were piecing together a military campaign out of the remnants of Ukraine’s armed forces, which had been gutted by decades of corruption and purposeful neglect.

Amid all of this, Nalyvaichenko pushed to prosecute corrupt government officials.

A New Fight

In Ukraine, opinions diverge about the hierarchy of threats facing the country.

A nearly three-year-old war between Ukrainian troops and a combined force of pro-Russian separatists and Russian regulars continues to simmer in the Donbas, Ukraine’s embattled eastern territory on the border with Russia.

About 10,000 Ukrainians have so far died in the conflict, which has also displaced about 1.7 million people. The war cost Ukraine an equivalent 20 percent of its gross national product in 2015, according to a 2016 report by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

The February 2015 cease-fire has failed. Military and civilian casualties still occur almost every day from landmines, artillery fire, rocket attacks, and small arms gun battles.

Ukraine’s military has rebuilt itself since 2014, but many front-line soldiers complain that after nearly three years of combat, they still aren’t getting basic supplies.

“It’s our country, at stake is our independence, our future. The question is, are we going to survive or not?” Valentyn Nalyvaichenko says.

Despite the war’s cost in blood and treasure, Nalyvaichenko said the greatest threat facing Ukraine today is not on the battlefields of the Donbas, but within Kyiv’s government halls.

“If you don’t understand how deep and how destroying the corruption is, you’ll never win the war,” Nalyvaichenko said. “This system, as I understand it, is not workable anymore. And because of war, because of Russian aggression, we now understand why. We simply, as a country, as a nation, have no time and no space anymore to continue with such corrupt practices.”

There is, however, a countervailing, quieter faction, particularly among Ukraine’s military brass, which says the war effort should take priority over any anti-corruption crusades.

Ukrainian military officials who spoke to The Daily Signal on background cautioned against ambitious anti-corruption agendas while the country is still at war.

And, according to the October 2016 International Republican Institute poll, most Ukrainians consider the war to be the biggest threat to the country.

Of the Ukrainians surveyed in the poll, 53 percent said the war in the Donbas was the country’s most important issue, compared with 38 percent who singled out corruption as the top issue.

“The tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, tanks, and artillery sitting along Ukraine’s southern and eastern borders are Ukraine’s sole existential threat,” Alexander Motyl, professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark, wrote in OZY. “If [Russian President] Vladimir Putin gives the command, they could invade and possibly destroy large parts of the country. Corruption, by comparison, could eviscerate Ukraine’s institutions, but only in the long term.”

Outsider

As SBU chief, Nalyvaichenko spearheaded an investigation into a June 8, 2015, fire at an oil depot near Vasylkiv, Ukraine. The investigation allegedly implicated government officials in financial crimes, according to Nalyvaichenko’s account of events.

The investigation also revealed the undisclosed involvement of a Russian company in the oil depot.

Nalyvaichenko said he personally presented Poroshenko with the evidence and pushed for the issuance of arrest warrants.

Then, on June 15, 2015, Poroshenko fired Nalyvaichenko as head of the SBU. And three days later, Ukraine’s parliament voted to approve Nalyvaichenko’s ouster.

“That’s why I decided to be outside the government,” Nalyvaichenko said. “I really understood and understand for sure that to be subordinated and to fight the corruption, which is above you, is impossible. You become a part of this corrupt group of people, or you are outside. Here’s a red line. For me it was a clear decision.”

Valentyn Nalyvaichenko says fighting corruption is Ukraine’s top priority.

The Poroshenko administration declined a request for comment for this article. But, in an emailed statement to The Daily Signal, the SBU defended its track record of investigating and prosecuting corrupt officials.

“After the Revolution of Dignity, state leadership gave a clear indication to law enforcement authorities to begin the real fight against corruption, regardless of position, party affiliation, and the number of stars on one’s epaulets,” the SBU wrote in its statement to The Daily Signal.

According to the SBU, the security agency investigated 673 Ukrainian officials for corruption in 2016, compared with 545 in 2015, and 359 in 2014. The SBU said its investigations led to 256 convictions in 2016, an increase from 184 in 2015, and 181 in 2014.

“This suggests an increase in the intensity of the intelligence agencies in this cause,” the SBU said in its statement.

Nalyvaichenko acknowledged that Ukraine has made some progress in fighting corruption, but he said the past few years of investigations have largely targeted mid- and low-level government officials.

“The worst thing, I think, is that no single person from the top of the previous government [has been] prosecuted,” Nalyvaichenko said. “No single trial, or public hearings, or other procedures were organized by this government, by these officials. That’s I think the worst thing for the country and for Ukrainians.”

The post Ukraine’s Former Top Spy Goes After a New Enemy: Corruption appeared first on The Daily Signal.

from http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/ukraines-former-top-spy-goes-after-a-new-enemy-corruption/

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patriotnewsblogger-blog · 8 years ago

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Ukraine’s Former Top Spy Goes After a New Enemy: Corruption

New Post has been published on http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/ukraines-former-top-spy-goes-after-a-new-enemy-corruption/