T&T has slipped four points on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), from a score of 39 in 2015 to 35 in 2016.
This was revealed during the launch of the Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, Mt Hope yesterday.
This country’s position is now 101 compared to 72 in 2015. In 2013 and 2014, T&T had scored 38 and in 2012 the score was 39 on the CPI.
Speaking at the launch, JMMB managing director and CEO Nigel Romano called for good corporate governance in private companies and State enterprises, adding that this essentially protected the interests of a company’s owners, shareholders and was receptive to requests.
“Companies with poor corporate governance make decisions that adversely affect the interest of shareholders. Weak corporate governance structures don’t necessarily produce bad decision-making.
They merely allow it,” Romano said.
He added that too often, management teams abuse their positions and become “secretive, dictatorial and greedy.”
“They treat shareholder money like theirs. Good corporate governance procedures are designed to protect against this behaviour,” Romano added.
He said at the national level it was important for political leadership to engage all stakeholders, including business, labour, professionals, academia, religious leaders and civil society, in a “very real conversation around solutions.”
“When people clearly understand what is expected of them, political jockeying and favouritism are minimised and people can focus on rapid execution,” he said.
During the panel discussion, Winston Rudder, a former permanent secretary who said the results were disturbing, said there were enough laws to deal with corruption, but said citizens must not become complacent when it came to tackling this issue.
Saying that corruption in T&T was somewhat “democratised,” he said the gains of corruption were filtered throughout the society.
He said there must be a change in attitude on the part of citizens to fight this scourge.
Transparency International chair Jose Ugaz called for urgent deep-rooted systemic reforms that “even up.”
Echoing his sentiments was Dion Abdool, chairman of the T&T Transparency, who said society needed to accept that something was wrong.