Ease of Doing Business and Corruption
For Barbados to get its fiscal and economic house in order greater focus must be placed on achieving economic growth. As such, government has sought to improve the business climate with the hopes of spurring domestic and international investments. Yet, a favourable business climate can be hindered by the difficulties that are faced while conducting business with government. A major contributor to these difficulties is the existence of bureaucratic corruption.
Bribery hurting business
Bureaucratic corruption can impede efficient business transactions as it creates groups of winners and losers. Persons that are willing to pay bribes to fast-track regulatory processes may grease the wheel for themselves but undermine business facilitation for everyone else. This occurs since acts such as bribery allow individuals to jump procedural lines thereby distorting the process for the more ethical among us. These instances of bribery can then be replicated as distortions such as undue delays, increase the willingness of others to be unethically fast-tracked. Eventually, what can emerge is an environment where bribery becomes the rule rather than the illegal alternative. This environment affects many budding entrepreneurs, small and large enterprises as the ease of doing business is frustrated at the expense of millions in investment.
Corruption deterrence needed
Given the impact that the aforementioned practices can have on Barbados’ business climate, efforts to address them are necessary. Although the majority of public servants presumably follow the rules, government should improve its monitoring techniques of the public service to better detect and deter instances of corruption. Such techniques can include integrity screening which can lessen the possibility of hiring and retaining potentially corrupt employees. Such an approach is evidenced in the United States where public sector employees’ tax history, creditworthiness and other indicators are screened to gauge how susceptible these employees may be to bribery.
Monitoring techniques can also include e-governance technologies and practices that promote standardization in the acceptance, processing and payments when conducting business. Combined, these allow for greater transparency and less client interactions with public officers that maybe suspectable to bribes. Ideally, these can also reduce these public officer’s ability to intervene in processing procedures to grant undue advantages to corrupt actors.
Whistle-blowing and penalties
Furthermore, well-established whistle-blowing procedures can play a critical role in monitoring. Whistle-blowing can prove effective when colleagues of corrupt public officials become aware of their activities. Providing these colleague with the safe an appropriate channels for reporting transgressions increases the likelihood of deterrence due to the threat of exposure. However, exposure must be met with accountability and therefore government must strengthen and enforce penalties that speak to corruption.
Due to the economic difficulties that Barbados confronts it is vital that government facilitates a conducive investment climate. Although government has shown its willing to do this through various reforms, greater focus should be placed on combating bureaucratic corruption.