CORRUPTION ALIVE IN T&T, SAYS NEW US REPORT

CORRUPTION is alive and well in Trinidad and Tobago, a brand-new United States report has said.

In fact, it is “a problem at many levels of government,” according to the just-released US State Department’s 2022 report on human rights practices.

The American study stated that “the law provides criminal penalties for corruption by officials” but the government did not enforce the law and that “officials allegedly engaged in corrupt practices with impunity.”

The damning report added that “there were credible reports of government corruption” during the year under review.

The US State Department noted “credible reports of opaque public procurement processes and public service contracts with well-known gang members were a concern.”

The report stated that statutes governing conflicts of interest were rarely enforced, “making nepotism and corruption commonplace.”

The American document added: “There were credible reports of government ministries and public companies manipulating or bypassing established procurement procedures to favour specific vendors unfairly.”

The report noted that two police officers were charged with misbehaviour in public office, unlawfully and dishonestly agreeing to accept and receive money.

Also, two officers were charged with several offences, including misbehaviour in public office, money laundering, and receiving and soliciting money.

It was further observed that senior police officials acknowledged the involvement of the police with transnational gangs in the trafficking of drugs, weapons, and persons.

“Police officers reportedly often accepted bribes and payments for assisting criminal enterprise,” the US report said.

Also, non-governmental organisations reported, and government officials acknowledged, “corruption, bribery and extortion of immigration, police and Coast Guard officials by human traffickers and corrupt immigration officials.”

The report pointed to “open-ended investigations” and “the generally slow pace of criminal judicial proceedings.”

The study summarised that there were “credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings by police, refoulement (forcible return) of asylum seekers, serious acts of corruption, and trafficking in persons.”  

These crimes, according to the US, were “significant human rights abuses.”

Access to asylums was “a significant problem since there were no formal procedures to register those who seek asylum.”

The government has not set up a system for protecting asylum seekers, the report stated.  

The report identified examples of “arbitrary or unlawful killings.”

Further, “police officers and prison guards sometimes used excessive force against detainees and prisoners.”

The report described prison conditions as “harsh due to overcrowding and inadequate sanitation.”

In some remand facilities, “an average of five to nine prisoners shared a nine-by-six foot cell” and “buckets were used as toilets.”

On the matter of ethnicity, the US State Department observed that “the primary political parties tended to break along racial lines…”

Both the PNM and UNC “used and defended racially charged language” during the previous general election.

The stunning report comes in the continued absence of a full proclamation of procurement legislation and public allegations about corruption in the public sector.

There are also public revelations about human trafficking and sexual abuse of women and children who seek asylum in the country.