Governance & Competitiveness

Within the past three months alone, many of the challenges faced by Trinidad and Tobago have been underpinned by repeating themes of the need for accountability and transparency. The Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce supports the view that good governance is central to rebuilding investor confidence and competitiveness for Trinidad and Tobago.

As the business sector continues to be challenged by escalating crime rates which erodes confidence in Trinidad and Tobago, it appears that white-collar crime is fast becoming as prevalent as blue-collar crime, and, it becomes equally important that systems are put in place to address this growing prevalence in our local economy.

Very simply, there must be proper systems and procedures to guide both decision-making and implementation to ensure accountability and transparency in all areas of administration, including procurement, recruitment, and service delivery. There must also be adequate disclosure of these decisions and the activities undertaken in their execution.

Even as the Government moves to establish an anti-corruption commission to deal with white-collar crime, as announced by The Honourable Prime Minister in January this year (and which the Chamber supports as a step in the right direction), this addresses one aspect of the problem: the after-the-fact redress. Legislation provides some guidance and sets the boundaries and parameters within which officials, both from the public and private sectors, operate. There is, however, a need for enforcement of legislation and avenues for redress when procedures are not followed, as legislation without enforcement is “a dog with no teeth”.

Moreover, there must be an appreciation and understanding by the society of the need for and importance of these systems and procedures, so that good governance becomes the norm and is collectively demanded of both the public and private sector.  The media also has an important role to play in ensuring that both businesses and institutions are held to account for their actions and decisions, especially where the use of public funds is concerned.

Companies in Trinidad and Tobago do business regionally and internationally and cannot look narrowly at regulatory risk anymore, saying “This is a T&T problem.”  Institutionalizing good governance systems in the private and public sectors benefit not only the individual organizations and institutions implementing these systems, but also boost the national reputation in the international community. There is significant potential for increased investor confidence in the credibility of domestic operations and improved efficiency at the aggregate level, both of which lead to enhanced national competitiveness.

However, if members of a society do not have a clear sense of what is right and what is wrong, we will continue to be fighting fires. Without some moral compass guiding individual actions, the fabric of society continues to erode and there is less and less guidance provided for future generations. We, as a society, also have a collective responsibility to live the values of integrity and fairness that we expect from the public and private sectors outside of the workplace. We ourselves must become this moral compass and support the embedding of values into the younger generation to create a culture of integrity for the future of Trinidad and Tobago.