Transparency New Zealand

Last week I was in Brisbane at a conference and work shop  co hosted by Griffith University  and transparency International –Using Anti-Corruption to Protect Growth and Development in the G20 and Beyond.

Much of the focus of the work shop was to  explore the  national integrity system  ( NIS ) and how various countries had interpreted the  guidelines and   come out with their reports.

While it was clear that  Transparency International  saw corruption as  the  key element it transpired that  TINZ ( Transparency International New Zealand ) had not included this in their assessment .

Suzanne Snively made two presentations at one she   pointed out that   TINZ is not funded and they have trouble getting  members, I guess this is evident when new members  sign up and immediately become directors .  She made no mention of the  Members who  were leaving because they were so overwhelmed out being outnumbered by  the Government agencies which  appear to control  TINZ and hence  the resulting finding that New Zealand has the least corrupt public sector in the world.  see the  NIS report here

We all do well if we blow  our own trumpet , any way  Suzanne’s presentations are

Suzanne Snively and Daniel King – A national perspective

Suzanne Snively and Daniel King – Adapting the NIS to a ‘developed’ country: environment, business and the Treaty of Waitangi

When referring to the presentation of Finn Heinrich –  Where does it come from?  How does it work?   What is needed for the future? you can see that he refers to  two Crucial Ingredients  to provide Momentum for Anti-Corruption Reform  they are

1. Strong Evidence on Integrity System & Practice
2. Engagement with key  stakeholders in a country

Lets evaluate these criteria  against the current New Zealand Climate

Strong Evidence on Integrity System & Practice

Currently we have a spat  going on pre election  between our  two main parties. It is a Tit  for tat and   we are slinging mud to repel  corruption allegations, this is basically our anti corruption  system  at work, name calling at school play ground level.

The latest  spat   has occurred  after our minister of justice   took time out on her  ministerial trip to promote   milk  for a Chinese company of which her husband has been made director, I have reported on the matter in full   at this link 

The next blow came  to National  when Maurice Williamson was  discovered to have been supporting the citizenship of  Donghua Liu  against  official advice .

Last year the Mayor of Auckland   was caught with his pants down  and at the time  Mr key had this to  say “I’ve had plenty of people who’ve rung me up with information about Labour MPs,” he said.
“And I’ve done the same thing to every person that’s rung me. I’ve written it down, put it in my top drawer and kept it to myself. I’m just not interested in engaging in it.”
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/john-key-keeps-dirt-file-labour-mps-video-5655493

It is very  obvious  that  the top drawer has now been opened and  they have had to dig deep to find the  dirt which they  can throw back at labour.

The reality is that the   Prime ministers act of keeping  dirt in his top drawer is in itself a corrupt act as  each and every incident reported to him should  be passed on   for independent investigation  at the time the issue arises  and not held on to until a blackmail-able opportunity arises

There simply is no integrity in  stockpiling  dirt on the opposition – this allows  corruption to be traded off with corruption , each  act should be independently evaluated and the  perpetrators charged if evidence is sufficient.

Engagement with key  stakeholders in a country

While Whistleblowers are seen as essential any where else in the world  (Grzegorz Makowski – Cross-cutting problems in the NIS: corruption of anti-corruption policies; whistleblower protection; human rights protection) TINZ prefers to ignore us.  this is like   doing a   report on  the operations of a company and leaving out the  shoppers  .

There are two sides to any system, the one  looking out  and the one looking in.  the systems my look in place but if they are not user friendly or are designed to be counter productive against corruption then the system  has no integrity .

I would have thought that   it would be a serious matter for some one to make an application for law enforcement powers  using false information, after all people are  taken to task for benefit  fraud and the like every day  , but it appears that the bigger it is the more people   that are implicated and the  more systems that are shown to be  unsafe   then  more reasons exist to deny  what has happened and simply carry on.  look no issue .. too hard  lets move on .

The key  stake holders on the other hand who were engaged with  were the members of TINZ,  and the  funders  , these include Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet

  Moving on

TINZ   appears to be too closely aligned with government   so much so that    those ministers  who are engaging on corrupt practices rely on the  NIS   to refute any claims  e.g.

“Ms Collins says the Government values its close working relationship with Transparency International New Zealand and she looks forward to working through the report’s recommendations.”

Not bad since her ministry paid to  get the report done .

I have again asked Suzanne Snively if I can join TINZ  see my email here email application jun 2014 .. will keep you posted