Corruption

The other day Boing Boing published an article about the Police in Georgia (the country not the state) and their new iPad like devices. In the article they added the following comment:

“100% guaranteed those crooked, fat, lazy cops will be using these devices primarily for porn and Russian gambling services.”

Boing Boing is clearly very widely read because the Georgian government responded. The letter is awesome and shows how you can turn a silly comment into a social media win. Labour should take note:

The article published on [Boing Boing on] January 12, 2012, about the initiative by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia to introduce new portable field computers (so called “Police Pads”) ends with an anonymous quote declaring that “100% guaranteed those crooked, fat, lazy cops will be using these devices primarily for porn and Russian gambling services.”

Stereotypes like this are easy to toss out—but are quite simply incorrect. This quote does not reflect the productivity, effectiveness, transparency, and reliability of the police force in Georgia today, but rather the bygone era of the 1990s, a reality that has drastically changed thanks to an ambitious and successful reform process.

The reform process in Georgia began immediately after the 2003 Rose Revolution. The new government inherited a completely corrupt and bloated law-enforcement system. The systemic corruption and the high level of crime throughout the country resulted in a very low level of public trust: fewer than 10% of Georgians had confidence in the police, according to 2003 polls. And the very low average policeman’s salary (approximately $68 per month) made the soliciting of bribes routine.

Georgia has since made the creation of an efficient and modern police force a national priority, undertaking a series of reforms that sought to rebuild the national police force literally from the ground up. The entire national police force was fired, and a new force hired, trained and deployed with the aim of meeting the highest international standards of professionalism.

These reforms are widely regarded as an unqualified success. Having reduced corruption and bribe taking to levels comparable to those in Europe, the police in Georgia have earned the trust and respect of the public they serve:

•According to Transparency International’s latest Global Corruption Barometer, in terms of public perception Georgia has the world’s 5th least-corrupt police force, placing it ahead of Germany or even the United States;

•According to the survey conducted by the International Republican Institute (IRI) in November 2011, 87% of population have confidence in Police;

•According to a survey funded by the EU and conducted by GORBI Institute in 2011, Georgia has one of the lowest “victimization coefficients,” a measure that reflects public perceptions of crime and individual security.

On the subject of the so-called “Police Pads,” reforms have transformed what was once an antiquated backlog of paper files for car imports, registries, and customs. They have been replaced with new, cutting-edge technology capable of streamlining requests and filing paperwork in record time.

Georgia has much work to do in shaking off the vestiges of nearly a century of Soviet occupation, but the transformation of our police force into a modern and professional service is an achievement that Georgians are deeply proud of, and a symbol of our commitment to retake our rightful place in the European community.

January 16, 2012
Press Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia

No one will be under any illusion now as tot he fact that Georgia is a vibrant, modern, improving economy climbing out of the wreck of Soviet domination.

Winston Peters is upset because John Key may have insulted his bewildered supporters who still think he is the messiah.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says National could face a backlash from older voters following speculation about comments John Key made in a secret tape recording.

I’ve always said that a good hard cold winter and a virulent dose of bird flu would solve the Peters problem.

I still wonder why journalists before even entertaining listening to New Zealand’s most corrupt politician, after Phillip Field, don’t ask when he plans to pay back the $158,000 his party still owes the taxpayer.

There is a word for the actions of someone who asks for money for access to or action from a minister:

A key aide to a Government minister asked for money in an email that also discussed putting “political pressure” on an issue.

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples’ electorate manager Martin Cooper wrote to a local property owner that he wanted money, then spoke of contacting a Government minister.

It led to a call for police to become involved after details were passed to Local Government Minister Rodney Hide.

Cooper named Hide as one of the people he planned to write to as part of a campaign of “political pressure”.

“I’ve never seen a more serious situation with anyone employed by Parliamentary Service,” Hide said.

Cooper could not be reached for comment but last night had full support from Sharples.

The MP was approached with the emails but refused to read them. “I support Martin 100 per cent. He’s a leader among his people,” he said.

Emails obtained by the Herald on Sunday showed Cooper was hired to help with the sale of the former headquarters of the Auckland chapter of the Black Power gang.

That word is corruption. It is especially approriate considering it involved one of New Zealand’s largest gangs.

Pita Sharples should be distancing himself from this not supporting him. Philip Field went to jail for accepting tiling and other “gifts”.

This is why I keep calling for an Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Phillip Field is still corrupt, his appeal has been thrown out. Only a former Labour minister would argue that he shouldn’t be convicted of corruption because he only stole a little bit from his constituents:

The Supreme Court has dismissed disgraced former Labour MP Phillip Field’s appeal against his conviction for bribery and corruption.

Field was released from jail 10 days ago. He was two years into a six-year sentence after being found guilty in October 2009 of 11 charges of bribery and corruption and 15 of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Field was charged after then prime minister Helen Clark ordered an inquiry into allegations he had traded immigration favours for tiling, painting or plastering work on his properties in New Zealand and Samoa.

The Court of Appeal dismissed Field’s appeal against conviction and sentence so he took it to the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court.

However, a panel of five judges has unanimously dismissed his appeal.

The judges said in their finding there must be a “de minimis defence” available for people such as MPs whereby gifts of token value – such as a rugby jersey – were acceptable.

However, the services Field had received were worth about $50,000, and that could not be considered de minimis.

Selwyn Pellet is calling for assistance to spread the Labour message. Never-mind that he may have actually fallen foul of electoral law by virtue of being an unregistered promotor, it appears that the call has been answered, he has

Yesterday Phillip Field was released from prison.

He is just in time to assist Labour in their election. He can certainly rescue Labor and assist them in their polling.

Bryce Edwards has been compiling a daily political collation and aggregation of political and topical news stories in election year.

He adds an editorial component at the beginning and yesterday’s was a real doozy.

As I mentioned yesterday, allegations about political finance, corruption and scandal are now the key electoral weapon of modern New Zealand politics. The political rhetoric about corruption, political funding, misuse of taxpayer funds, and personal political behavior are now one of the most salient forms of electioneering in what is now a permanent campaign. As with rhetoric around more perennial issues such as law and order, parties and politicians now trade heavily on claims, accusations and complaints relating to these issues. Yet New Zealand politics has not traditionally been characterised by political finance, corruption and scandals. So why has this type of negative campaigning suddenly become so central to New Zealand politics? Quite simply, problematic issues of political finance and political corruption have actually existed for a long time in New Zealand politics but have only recently become visible due to a variety of factors relating to the shift to a proportion representation electoral system, the breakdown of the party system and ‘cartel’, and ideological convergence in the party system. Most significantly, the increasing visibility of apparent political finance and political corruption is due to the sudden propensity of political parties to use such allegations as a rhetorical weapon against opponents, creating an escalating battle over political integrity in which words such as ‘corrupt’ and ‘corruption’ are increasingly used. I’ll be explaining all of this in a paper I’m giving at the Political Rhetoric conference being held at Parliament over the next couple of days (and blogging it in the near future).

I wish I had known earlier about the Political Rhetoric conference as I would have loved to have gone to listen to Bryce talk about the growing political corruption we are seeing.

I disagree with Bryce that the allegations are rhetorical weapons. That would only be true of the allegations had no substance. These allegations however now have real substance with the Labour party in particular creating a legacy of regularly and willfully breaking electoral laws. Worse still though is Labour’s propensity to blame others, and when finally caught and embarrassed they resort to retrospective legislation to shamefully right that which was wrong.

No party is squeaky clean, but in the abscence of any action by the Police or the parliament to clean it up it has been left up to bloggers in the main to draw attention to the issues with the few tools available to them, the OIA, complaints to the Speaker and Electoral Commission.

Parliament and the vested interests have shown a distinct unwillingness to address the issues and until they do politicians and parties can suffer the ignominy of constantly being caught, outed and castigated as cheats, liars and corrupt. Labour are yet to show any contrition for their acts of willful disregard of the rules.

If parties and politicians cannot follow the laws that they write and pass then we really can’t trust them to reform anything. We have some serious constitutional issues before us with a referendum on the future of MMP and the politicians that say “trust us” to reform MMP are the very same politicians breaking electoral law.

It is high time for us to mimic Australia and establish a Independent Commission against Corruption so that the politicians, parties and bureaucrats can truly be held to account.

Peter Goodfellow sums up Winston Peters and his lies perfectly:

“This is the type of rubbish we’d expect from Winston. None of it’s true. It’s all part of his on-going campaign to make himself relevant.”

There may be some in National who leak to Labour but no one would leak to Winston Peters.

I have heard Winston repeat his lies about internal National polling data and I know them to be blatently false, like everything that ever utters from his mouth.

When New Zealand’s most corrupt politician, Winston Raymond Peters, 65, pensioner of St Marys Bay pays back the New Zealand taxpayer the $158,000 still outstanding then perhaps I will take the time to listen to his lies, for the truth and Winston are definitely strangers to each other.

Winston Peters, New Zealand’s most corrupt politician, has endorsed MMP:

MMP has the approval of New Zealand First, ahead of its annual conference in Auckland this weekend.

The system will be the subject of a referendum at this year’s election which could see it retained, or lead to voters having a chance to choose a new approach.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says MMP is the system his party believes in because it’s so much better than the alternatives.

Great, now more than ever there is a reason for Kiwis to vote for change at the referendum.

Corrupt ACC property manager Malcolm Mason has copped it sweet, scoring only 11 months home detention for his part in a multi-million dollar rort of ACC. Hell, I’d do 11 months home detention for a million bucks.

Considering Malcolm Mason is reputedly the beneficiary of around $1m in ill gotten gains, it is clear that corruption does pay.  Ok his career prospects are not that great , but maybe one of the tight six will look after him.  Maybe Malcolm can be a telephone jockey for HotChilly and earn money on commission for selling HVAC units to home and business.  (Does HotChilly still do a heap of work for ACC??)

Maybe Malcolm could become a real estate agent for Rohan Hill at Bayleys?

Or maybe Lloyd Cundy will get Malcolm to do some work from home?

With charges for Greg Hutt still pending, we wonder what Malcolm could do for Greg Hutt – or are they no longer talking since Greg Hutt  lied to Malcolm Mason about the profit share that was to be split 50/50.

11 months home detention for significant corruption?  The courts are too soft on this white collar criminal.  At least he is ashamed of himself (but it was worth it eh Malcolm)  Now does the IRD have the balls to go after him?

Well now, seems that another of the tight six has, or is currently taking one for the team. Greg Hutt has lost his bid for continued name suppression. NBR and Jock Anderson has the story behind the paywall.

Name suppression has been lifted on businessman Greg Alexander Hutt, a second accused in a Serious Fraud Office probe into Accident Compensation Corporation property corruption.

Mr Hutt, owner of Wellington-based Hi-Tech Commercial Interiors, which did fitouts for ACC offices, lost a Wellington High Court appeal for continued suppression of his name.

Earlier this month ACC national property manager Malcolm David Mason (50), who worked for ACC for 32 years, admitted two Crimes Act and one Secret Commissions Act charges, relating to an ACC office building in Nelson.

Mr Hutt faces three charges alleging corrupt secret commissions arising from a payment allegedly made by him to co-defendant Mason – an allegation of corruption of a public official.

The allegations relating to Mr Hutt arise from property rentals by ACC.

Rejecting Mr Hutt’s contention that publication of his name would have serious effects on Hi-Tech’s business, Justice Ron Young said whenever a businessman was charged with some form of dishonesty, publication of his name was likely to affect their business.

“There is no principle that exempts those alleged to have committed white collar crime from the established approach to suppression of name accepting that each case must be assessed on its own facts,” Justice Young said.

In a judgment released to National Business Review today, Justice Young said: “There is nothing about Mr Hutt’s circumstances that, in my view, can be assessed as exceptional given the context of the crime he faces.”

The judge sums up nicely at the end:

After developing the companies over 20 years, Mr Hutt recently resigned as manager and director of Hi-Tech Commercial Interiors Wellington and Hi-Tech Commercial Interiors Auckland.

Justice Young said the public and especially government departments and other commercial enterprises Mr Hutt dealt with were entitled to know about the charges he faced.

Commenters on the NBR site made the follwoing comments:

Awesome result. Those who can do. Those who cannot cheat.
PT | Monday, February 28, 2011 – 4:30pm

Harpooned by a Whale.
Kaikoura Kid | Monday, February 28, 2011 – 4:47pm

Very apt comments those.