Blasé on IC

Danielle Archer, principal director of the National Integrity Action (NIA), says with new leadership set to take the reins of the Integrity Commission (IC), the anti-corruption body should advance and accelerate a national strategy against corruption by increasing the level of public awareness of the role and impact of the entity.

Her comments come against the background of the latest RJRGLEANER-commissioned Don Anderson poll which revealed that, despite being the subject of a plethora of news items over the last four years, Jamaicans do not have a clear position on the IC.

The poll, conducted between January 30 and February 12 this year, showed that 57 per cent of those interviewed had no opinion about Jamaica’s IC.

However, for those who responded to the question of how they felt about the IC, 23 per cent held a positive view compared with 20 per cent who had a negative view of the anti-corruption entity.

Political analyst Damion Gordon says he is not surprised at the findings of the poll which indicates that the majority of Jamaica’s electorate have no opinion on the work or mandate of the IC.

Gordon told The Gleaner that there was very limited knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the scope of work, mandate as well as the powers of the different public accountability institutions in Jamaica.

95 PER CENT CONFIDENCE LEVEL

The Anderson-led Market Research Services Limited polled 1,201 registered voters aged 18 and over across all parishes. The margin of error is plus or minus three per cent at the 95 per cent confidence level.

When asked if recent events have changed their views of the IC, 14 per cent of respondents answered in the affirmative, while 40 per cent said ‘no’. Forty-six per cent were not sure.

“From a political support perspective, there was no clear line of demarcation of the views of the IC, with a roughly equal number of People’s National Party (PNP) supporters and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters holding positive views and negative views respectively,” Anderson noted.

The results of the poll also showed that from a political support perspective, there was no clear line of demarcation of the views of the IC, with a roughly equal number of PNP supporters and JLP supporters holding positive views and negative views respectively.

Voters who were likely to vote for the PNP were more expressive on the issue, with approximately 54 per cent actually responding on this issue but with 27 per cent reflecting positive sentiments and an equal 27 per cent negative.

Just 40 per cent of the voters who say they will vote for the JLP actually had an opinion of the IC. Again, views on the IC from supporters of the JLP were equally divided, with 20 per cent reflecting a negative response and 20 per cent positively inclined to the IC.

Archer questioned whether the director in charge of public education at the IC has carried out comprehensive public education programmes about the role and function of the anti-corruption body.

She said the IC has the responsibility of developing a national anti-corruption strategy and to sensitise the public about the scope of its work.

“The IC needs to see its public education efforts as important in transforming the national landscape’s response to the entity.”

Archer argued that this becomes even more important against the background that the IC also has responsibility for the Protected Disclosure Act.

The designated authority that implements provisions of the Protected Disclosures Act is the Information and Complaints Division of the IC.

She argued that more Jamaicans need to appreciate that corruption is not a “victimless or bloodless crime”.

editorial@gleanerjm.com