Venezuelan government opens wide doors to hyper-corruption...
<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel
VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: Tuesday, May 13 was the date, aptly chosen, to publish the Regulations to the Law of Public Bidding (Licitations) in the GAceta Oficial (Venezuela's Official Gazette) ... this is a true horror story, as readers will soon appreciate.
In the acquisition of goods and services in both the private and public sectors, the prevailing mechanism is competitive bidding. This is done all over the world, except in very backward countries or where the dictator has the last and only say.
When constructing a public highway or buying a new airplane, transparency dictates that a competitive bid be conducted. The winner is not necessarily the company that offers the lowest price but the best combination of price, technical excellence, quality of product and the best management.
To be true, it is not a simple procedure ... it tends to be lengthy, is not corruption proof and could become a very tangled affair. However, it represents the least imperfect system, allowing for optimum transparency and accountability. In fact, Venezuela is internationally committed to the procedure under the terms of the Interamerican Convention Against Corruption, sponsored and signed by the Venezuela government ... a refusal to adhere to this policy is an open invitation to hyper-corruption.
This is exactly what the government of Hugo Chavez has just decided, violating Article III, points 1, 5, 6, 10 and 11 of the Convention. They have decided to allow all government agencies and enterprises to dispense with bidding for the acquisition of goods and services for the next 6 months ... on the grounds that a fast track is required to expedite an "exceptional" plan of economic and social development that no one knows about, not even themselves.
This anarchic measure will justify the acquisition of more than $2 billion worth of goods and services from "small, medium sized companies and cooperatives."
At the threshold of a referendum which might well result in the ousting from power of this government, this regulation clearly appears to be the starting point of an immense fraud. Companies and cooperatives mentioned above will probably be made up of friends and relatives. To add insult to injury the regulation allows the government to pay for the goods and services in advance if so required.
In Venezuela we have a saying: "Musica pagada no suena" ... Paid for music will not sound.
Of course this is not candor or naivete on the part of the government ... this is a conscious effort to walk away with bulging sacks of money when the time comes. I have seen a lot of corruption in Venezuela, but this new example comes at the top of the list, right there with Lusinchi's RECADI program.
I have to ask:
Have you ever seen a government which pretends to be honest and clean act in this manner? There is no transparency here. There is no accountability here. There is no regard for public opinion here. There is no respect for the institutions here. What we have is a bunch of crooks...
And you might ask: What do the comptrolling institutions say to this? The General Comptroller, Ombudsman, Attorney General, National Assembly, Police, the Pest Control Division? Absolutely nothing ... everybody is silent and watching the spectacle which is being put on by the very same people that four years ago came into power waving the flag of Anti-Corruption.
I tell whoever wants to listen: this a very corrupt government, not only because of what they are now trying to do but because of what they have already done. The Real Estate agencies in Florida already have many revolutionary clients ... you can look them up on the Internet.
Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983. In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort. You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com