Investing in a
corrupt economy
By William (Mike) Campbell BRS
(Editor's note: Mike Campbell is a
declared independent candidate seeking
to become the area representative
for the Belize Rural South constituency.
His views, opinions, et cetera are his
own and not necessarily those of The
Independent. We will from time to time
be inviting submissions from persons
who are candidates in the upcoming
municipal and general elections, but we
expect that Mr. Campbell's column will
become a regular feature in the newspaper's
op-ed section.)
Foreign investment in Belize is
at an all-time low. As foreign investment
has been one of the factors that
has driven our expansion over the last
30 years and is certainly needed to reignite
our economy, we should look
into some of the possible causes of this
decline. Generally when someone has
money to invest they look for, number
one, a safe investment that is protected
by law.
Foreign investors look closely at
local politics and business customs
as part of their due diligence exercise.
They are specifically looking for factors
that could affect the safety of their
contemplated investments. Evidence
of corruption in its various forms is a
red flag to the investment community.
Most businesses realize that when
overt favoritism exists, as foreigners,
they will certainly be disadvantaged.
The recent posting of an opinion by Janus
on the Amandala website will scare
any investor and is a clear indication
that we have truly lost the definition of
corruption and expect it and condone
it in our society.
Janus states that it is perfectly acceptable
for a victorious politician to
reward his friends and financial contributors
with favors. The practice of
giving favors to your friends is called
cronyism and is a form of political
corruption. The practice of politicians
rewarding those who financially contribute
to their campaigns with favors
is the very definition of political corruption
and in the US is punishable by
stiff prison terms. Our political morals
have fallen to where it is believed that
these are perfectly acceptable practices.
Publicly advocating corruption is obviously
bad for the business climate and
speaks volumes about our society.
How could any investor ever feel
comfortable investing in a country that
does not even know what corruption is
and allows its politicians to flaunt the
law with impunity? Until we address
this problem we will not be able to attract
the much needed foreign investment.
We have laws that require financial
disclosures from elected officials. This
would seem to work to the advantage
of the elected official as he can clearly
show he is not abusing his position to
enrich himself. For some reason I cannot
understand why the politicians, including
the ones that passed the legislation,
have failed to take advantage of
this opportunity to clearly demonstrate
their integrity even though there is a
prescribed fine of $10,000 for not filing
the annual disclosure.
To the best of my knowledge each
and every sitting member of the House
has failed to comply with this most
basic integrity
requirement and
most all that were
seated in the
previous House
are also guilty of
this violation.
Considering that
many are attorneys
and Senior
Counsels they no
doubt can explain
to us why they
and their friends
are exempt from
these requirements
and, more
importantly, why
they should be returned to office when they blatantly
ignore the law.
The other side of the coin is the
lack of accountability by the parties
themselves. Until candidates release
campaign budgets and source of funds
we are just playing a game. It is crucial
to know who has contributed because,
unlike Janus believes, it is not right to
give favors to those who donated to
your campaign. Sometimes contracts
are issued or government property sold
under circumstances that make us wonder
why that happened. If we knew who
had contributed to the various campaigns
we could no doubt better understand
many of the strange occurrences
we have seen over the years.
We have no chance of attracting
significant foreign investment until we
deal with this problem. We can start
right now in this election. Do not vote
for anyone who is in violation of
the financial disclosure laws and
don't vote for anyone who will not
say what they are spending on their
campaign and where the money
came from. That will be a start. It is
time the people put an end to this moral
deterioration and disregard for the law
on the part of our elected officials that is
ruining the credibility of our nation.