Vexed Bermoothes

Minister of Finance Paula Cox attended the meeting of the Overseas Territories Consultative Council in London this week.

At the meeting, it was agreed to extend the UN Convention Against Corruption to Bermuda and the other Overseas Territories at the earliest opportunity.

This important convention (PDF) covers many of the issues troubling Bermuda including the need for:

• codes of conduct for government officials;
• anti-corruption and whistleblower laws covering both government and private sector;
• transparent government procurement practices;
• increased focus on audit and risk management; and
• controls over official corruption, influence peddling, and abuse of power.

It also calls for the concealment of corruption to be a crime in its own right (hulloooooo, BHC!)

I’ll bet someone wishes he’d attended that meeting himself; he’d have seen this one off! I look forward to this Convention and its associated obligations being adopted as a priority for Bermuda.