A performing legislature would target those laws for improvement.  Mutter, cough, platinum.

The UK current has a new Draft Bribery Bill to update their laws to deal more effectively with corruption – in both the public and corporate sector – whether it occurs in the UK or overseas.  In many respects, it brings the UK law to par with the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, and others.

The new UK Bill clarifies offences relating to bribing and being bribed, the obligation of organisations to prevent bribery, and the global application of the law.  Here’s an interesting line from the Bill:

… even though the actions in question take place abroad, they still constitute the offence if the person performing them is a British national or resident, a national of a British overseas territory or a body incorporated in the United Kingdom.

Oh, really?

The UK made clear in the 1999 white paper concerning the Overseas Territories that it had a responsibility to help the OTs meet the international obligations to which the UK itself had committed (and to which the OTs would be expected to comply should they become independent).

International obligations applying to the Overseas Territories are likely, over the next decade, to become more demanding in many of these areas, in some of which the Overseas Territories themselves lack technical expertise and institutional capacity.  In essence the UK is acting as the transmission mechanism by which an ever growing corpus of global regulation is applied to the territories.  Were an Overseas Territories to choose independence (where this is an option), the implementation of international rules would be a matter between them and the organisation concerned.  But while the Overseas Territories choose to remain British, the UK has the obligation to ensure that they implement such measures.

That’s interesting … and will make some breathe a sigh of relief … because a commission looking into allegations of corruption in one area of Government would inevitably raise the pressure for similar commissions looking into the reams of allegations elsewhere.

The problem is that political overrides are being used with great frequency – and often in contravention of established Government routine and the clearly-articulated public desire.

This practice is asking for trouble as it undermines our democratic checks and balances.  The Sun opines:

Just about every examination of corruption I know of, from those made by the World Bank and Transparency International to “On the Take”, the classic study of political corruption by William J. Chandliss, point to indicators of corruption that are alarmingly similar to what we see here.

Among the most significant indicators are haphazardly enforced regulations and the political over-ruling of regulations – because they make it clear that decisions aren’t always made “by the book”.

Other indicators cited by these sources include lack of transparency and a resistance to auditing, which makes it easier for corruption to take place without anybody knowing, and can be used to cover up corruption if it is already taking place.

So what we’re talking about here isn’t just irritating politicians and sports awards.

We’re talking about something much more fundamental than that, like whether our society is going to run well or run badly.

Bermuda’s governance standards are slipping.  We need reform.