ORG On Future Corruption Prevention Initiatives

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The shocking revelation that high-ranking Bahamian law enforcement officers and a politician were named in a U.S. indictment on drug and firearm trafficking charges has sent shockwaves through the country. The incident reignites the debate on handling corruption in a small nation like The Bahamas.

Steffon Evans – Deputy Executive Director, ORG
“Very simply, there are sort of six areas that we look at. There is corruption prevention policy, which are the laws and regulations that help to identify those moderate to high-risk areas for corruption within the public sector and others and are implemented to get ahead of those. There are codes of ethics and codes of conduct, which give us a very clear and concise idea of the way that public officials and persons in positions of power govern themselves and deal with members of the public so that there’s a shared understanding and expectation. There’s corruption and risk management, which looks at the ongoing tools and mechanisms that we use to promote integrity and combat corruption.”

Evans highlighted the need for public awareness about corruption, emphasizing that the issue transcends political systems.

Steffon Evans – Deputy Executive Director, ORG
“I think it’s very important for us to note that issues of corruption stem much beyond political or social systems that exist at a time. We don’t have enough information yet to know how long this particular thing has been going on, for example. And so, what that points to is the fact that in any system of government where people are given power over public resources, there lies the opportunity for those resources to be misused for a variety of different reasons.”

ORG plans to address this through a new integrated anti-corruption framework and is calling on public participation.

Steffon Evans – Deputy Executive Director, ORG
“What we are doing and about to release in short order is a proposed integrated anti-corruption framework for The Bahamas that looks at how we get ahead of all of these things and then pull them together. I think it’s an ideal opportunity for the public sector and the leaders of government to come together with the community to really look at what’s going on and to sort of get a handle on implementing these measures so that when things do happen, which, from time to time, unfortunately, they are bound to, we have a much better understanding, and we can safeguard public trust, which is the cornerstone of governance in The Bahamas.”