Corruption

I am no economist – even if inadvertently described as one in a recent local newspaper (http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Alfred-Sant-s-nephew-to-replace-uncle-on-party-ticket-20121201).  My economic credentials so far are an O-level in the subject which I obtained quite a few years back – more years than I would like to remember.

I do not consider myself competent to comment on the intricacies contained in any budget that is presented before the House of Representatives.  The Oxford Dictionary describes the budget as “an estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time”.  Generally speaking, one of the main methods of generating income for the Government is through taxation.

However, no budget ever includes a tax which has far-reaching effects on the rest of the budget and also on the country in general per se.  It is a tax which is not really ‘seen’ (except when someone is taken to court) but can be felt – whether it is perception or not like the black dust in the Fgura area was once described.  This tax is that of corruption.

It is most probably impossible to completely eradicate this social plague from our midst.  I feel it to be something too ingrained into our mentality – although, truth be told, in some cases there is a very fine line between ‘being polite’ and ‘corruption’.  And I underline ‘some cases’ purposely.

There are a plethora of safeguards which can be introduced to ensure that corruption is reduced as much as possible.  Some safeguards might not be worth the paper they are written on, whilst others might be too restrictive and inconsiderate.  I would tend to be more in favour of laws, regulations and customs which are more biased towards the latter – so as to ensure that corruption is fought and not allowed to thrive.   

By favouring rules and regulations by no way means that I am in favour of a bureaucratic approach.  I detest bureaucracy with a passion and I fully understand both the common citizen as well as businesspeople when they complain about all the red tape they are made to face.  But limited bureaucracy is a necessarily evil.

Some years back the PL had put forward various proposals meant to tackle this problem.  I look forward to a new PL government – if chosen by the electorate – implementing these proposals and any other worthwhile ideas which will attempt to fight the very expensive tax which is corruption.

Marc