Cuba’s Anti-Corruption Effort Turns Five

Cuba's Anti-Corruption Effort Turns Five

July 3, 2014

Fernando Ravsberg*



HAVANA TIMES – Cuba's Comptroller's office turns five years old and the

anniversary is celebrated with the most important corruption trial in

recent years, with heavy prison sentences requested for prominent

foreign businessmen and top Cuban officials.



The appointment of Gladys Bejerano as Comptroler said little in itself

to most Cubans but raised the ears of many politicians who tried to

influence President Raul Castro to prevent the official from launching a

full-fledged anti-corruption campaign.



After five years of operation the rest of us begin to understand the

resentment of government administrators. Ms. Bejerano has sent to prison

ministers, deputy ministers, managers and directors, foreign businessmen

and many "rich kids".



The signs of what was to come were not lacking; even President Raul

Castro said in a public speech that no Cuban should believe that he/she

is above the law, bearing a clear message to the ruling class and their

families.



The Comptroller's office was essential to combat internal corruption, a

cancer that had metastasized throughout the body of the nation, to the

point that Fidel Castro himself felt the need back in 2005 to warn that

the revolution could destroy itself.



Gladys Bejerano has sent ministers, deputy ministers, managers,

directors, administrators, foreign businessmen and many "rich kids" to

prison.

Despite the limited information provided about the fight against

corruption, this five-year period makes clear that the disease is

clearly immune to the ideological training of the political and

government cadres and business ethics of some foreign millionaires.



Elements that facilitate corruption



Corruption is certainly not a problem unique to Cuba but the island has

a long tradition. Back in 1951, Fulgencio Batista said that embezzlement

was one of the three major problems of the country and that "the crisis

was not derived because of the crimes committed, but because they were

unpunished."



There's no way to avoid that some people are corrupted but there are

elements that facilitate this. In Cuba, the fertile ground comes from

excessive centralization, lack of controls, lack of transparency, and a

lack of a vigilant press and bureaucratic oversight mechanisms.



The government promotes changes in all these areas but progresses very

slowly. The ministries themselves are reluctantly letting go of some of

their businesses and allowing for cooperatives to replace them, but the

change is at a snail's pace.



The huge number of companies in the hands of the government directly

affects the lack of oversight and the need to maintain a huge,

bureaucratic apparatus that often generates more problems than solutions.



Companies are created to manage other companies as is the case of import

firms, further detaching them from the retailer and their customers

while generating one more level susceptible to corruption. Officials

serving prison sentences have commented that sometimes the supposed cure

is worse than the disease.



The oversight of all these activities is very difficult and the State as

both judge and jury doesn't work. At a food company I know, the ministry

that it is under warns weeks in advance of the "surprise" inspection it

plans to carry out.



Likewise, little progress has been made on the issue of transparency,

essential if they want people to participate in any way in the fight

against corruption. When citizens cannot demand information from

officials it creates a grey area that facilitates crimes.



The press could do a lot to promote transparency but the steps it has

taken thus far are still minimal. Officials still believe they can

handle journalists at will. Just days ago a newspaper claimed that the

director of a hospital tried to forbid them from writing.



The work of the Comptroller during these five years has been very

commendable but the cancer will be reborn again and again if the fight

against corruption is not accompanied by other social, economic and

political transformations in the nation.

—–

(*) Visit the blog of Fernando Ravsberg.



Source: Cuba's Anti-Corruption Effort Turns Five - Havana Times.org -

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=104630