Okay, this morning I'm speaking on the question of corruption. And corruption is defined as the abuse of a position of trust for the benefit of yourself -- or, in the case of our context, your friends, your family or your financiers. Okay? Friends, family and financiers. But we need to understand what we understand about corruption, and we need to understand that we have been miseducated about it, and we have to admit that. We have to have the courage to admit that to start changing how we deal with it.
Danes bom govoril o vprašanju korupcije. Korupcija se lahko opredeli kot zloraba zaupanega položaja v svojo korist ali v našem kontekstu v korist vaših prijateljev, družine ali vaših finančnikov. Torej prijateljev, družine in finančnikov. A vendar moramo razumeti, kar razumemo o korupciji, moramo razumeti, da so nas o njej narobe učili, to moramo priznati. Moramo zbrati pogum, da to priznamo, da lahko začnemo spreminjati naš odziv nanjo.
The first thing is that the big myth, number one, is that in fact it's not really a crime. When we get together with friends and family and we discuss crime in our country, crime in Belmont or crime in Diego or crime in Marabella, nobody's speaking about corruption. That's the honest truth. When the Commissioner of Police comes on TV to talk about crime, he isn't speaking about corruption. And we know for sure when the Minister of National Security is speaking about crime, he's not talking about corruption either. The point I'm making is that it is a crime. It is an economic crime, because we're involving the looting of taxpayers' money. Public and private corruption is a reality. As somebody who comes from the private sector, I can tell you there's a massive amount of corruption in the private sector that has nothing to do with government. The same bribes and backhanders and things that take place under the table, it all takes place in the private sector. Today, I'm focusing on public sector corruption, which the private sector also participates in.
Prvič; velika neresnica številka ena je, da sama po sebi sploh ni zločin. Ko se dobimo z družino in prijatelji in govorimo o kriminalu v naši državi, o kriminalu v Belmontu, Diegu ali Marabelli, nihče ne govori o korupciji. To je čista resnica. Ko se na televiziji pojavi policijski komisar, da bi govoril o kriminalu, ne govori o korupciji. In zagotovo vemo, da, ko minister za obrambo govori o kriminalu, prav tako ne govori o korupciji. Hočem povedati, da je zločin. Je ekonomski zločin, ker gre za plenjenje davkoplačevalskega denarja. Javna in zasebna korupcija sta resnični. Kot nekdo, ki prihaja iz zasebnega sektorja, vam lahko povem, da je neizmerno veliko korupcije v zasebnem sektorju, ki nima nobene povezave z vlado. Prav tiste podkupnine in stvari, ki se dogajajo pod mizo, vse se dogaja v zasebnem sektorju. Danes se bom osredotočil na korupcijo v javnem sektorju, pri kateri ima vlogo tudi zasebni.
The second important myth to understand -- because we have to destroy these myths, dismantle them and destroy them and ridicule them -- the second important myth to understand is the one that says that in fact corruption is only a small problem -- if it is a problem, it's only a small problem, that in fact it's only a little 10 or 15 percent, it's been going on forever, it probably will continue forever, and there's no point passing any laws, because there's little we can do about it. And I want to demonstrate that that, too, is a dangerous myth, very dangerous. It's a piece of public mischief.
Druga pomembna neresnica, ki jo moramo razumeti - ker moramo te neresnice uničiti, jih razstaviti, pokončati in zasmehovati - druga pomembna neresnica, ki jo moramo razumeti, je tista, ki pravi, da je korupcija pravzaprav majhen problem, če sploh je problem, je majhen problem, da gre v bistvu samo za malih 10 ali 15 procentov. Obstaja že od nekdaj, verjetno bo tu za zmeraj in nima smisla sprejemati zakonov, ker se ne da narediti ničesar. Rad bi dokazal, da je tudi to nevarna neresnica, zelo nevarna. Je navadna neumnost.
And I want to speak a little bit, take us back about 30 years. We're coming out today from Trinidad and Tobago, a resource-rich, small Caribbean country, and in the early 1970s we had a massive increase in the country's wealth, and that increase was caused by the increase in world oil prices. We call them petrodollars. The treasury was bursting with money. And it's ironic, because we're standing today in the Central Bank. You see, history's rich in irony. We're standing today in the Central Bank, and the Central Bank is responsible for a lot of the things I'm going to be speaking about. Okay? We're talking about irresponsibility in public office. We're speaking about the fact that across the terrace, the next tower is the Ministry of Finance, and there's a lot of connection with us today, so we're speaking within your temple today. Okay?
Rad bi povedal nekaj, nas popeljal 30 let nazaj. Prihajamo iz Trinidada in Tobaga, majhne, z naravnimi viri bogate karibske države. V zgodnjih 70. letih smo imeli ogromen porast v državnem premoženju, ki je nastal zaradi podražitve svetovnih cen nafte. Pravimo jim naftni dolarji. Zakladnica je pokala po šivih. Ironično je, da se danes nahajamo v Centralni Banki. Veste, zgodovina je bogata z ironijo. Danes se nahajamo v Centralni Banki in prav ta je odgovorna za kar nekaj stvari, o katerih bom danes govoril. Torej, govorimo o neodgovornosti v javnih uradih. Govorimo o dejstvu, da je naslednja stolpnica takoj čez teraso Ministrstvo za finance, ki ima danes veliko povezavo z nami, zato bomo danes govorili znotraj vašega svetišča, prav?
(Applause)
(Aplavz)
The first thing I want to talk about is that when all of this money flowed into our country about 40 years ago, we embarked, the government of the day embarked on a series of government-to-government arrangements to have rapidly develop the country. And some of the largest projects in the country were being constructed through government-to-government arrangements with some of the leading countries in the world, the United States and Britain and France and so on and so on. As I said, even this building we're standing in -- that's one of the ironies -- this building was part of that series of complexes, what they called the Twin Towers. It became so outrageous, the whole situation, that in fact a commission of inquiry was appointed, and it reported in 1982, 30 years ago it reported -- the Ballah Report -- 30 years ago, and immediately the government-to-government arrangements were stopped. The then-Prime Minister went to Parliament to give a budget speech, and he said some things that I'll never forget. They went right in here. I was a young man at the time. It went right into my heart. And he said that, in fact — Let me see if this thing works. Are we getting a, yeah?— That's what he told us. He told us that, in fact, two out of every three dollars of our petrodollars that we spent, the taxpayers' money, was wasted or stolen. So the 10 or 15 percent is pure mischief. As we say, it's a nancy-story. Forget it. That's for little children. We are big people, and we're trying to deal with what's happening in our society. Okay? This is the size of the problem. Okay? Two thirds of the money stolen or wasted. That was 30 years ago. 1982 was Ballah.
Najprej bi rad govoril o tem, kako je pred 40 leti ves ta denar pritekel v našo državo. Takratna vlada je začela vrsto vladnih dogovorov za čim hitrejši razvoj države. Nekateri izmed večjih državnih projektov so bili zgrajeni na podlagi medvladnih dogovorov z nekaterimi najpomembnejšimi državami na svetu, Združenimi Državami Amerike, Veliko Britanijo, Francijo in tako naprej. Kot sem omenil, celo ta stavba v kateri se nahajamo - to je ena izmed ironij - ta stavba je bila del te serije kompleksov čemur so rekli Dvojčka. Celotna situacija je postala tako nezaslišana, da so določili preiskovalno komisijo, ki je pred 30 leti, leta 1982 pojasnila svoja odkritja v poročilu Ballah - pred 30 leti. Medvladni dogovori so bili pri priči ustavljeni. Takratni premier je imel v parlamentu govor glede proračuna. Izjavil je nekaj stvari, ki jih nikoli ne bom pozabil. Seglo mi je prav do sem. Takrat sem bil še mladenič. Seglo mi je do srca. Povedal je ... da vidim, če to deluje. Bo šlo, ja? Povedal nam je tole. Povedal nam je, da sta bila pravzaprav dva od vsakih treh naftnih dolarjev, ki smo jih porabili, davkoplačevalskega denarja, zapravljena ali ukradena. Tistih 10 ali 15 procentov je navadna neumnost. Kot pravimo, navadna pravljica. Kar pozabite. To je za otroke. Mi smo že veliki, trudimo se spoprijeti s tem, kar se dogaja v naši družbi. To je velikost tega problema. Dve tretjini denarja sta bili ukradeni ali izgubljeni. To je bilo pred 30 leti. Leta 1982 se je zgodil Ballah.
So what has changed? I don't like to bring up embarrassing secrets to an international audience, but I have to. Four months ago, we suffered a constitutional outrage in this country. We call it the Section 34 fiasco, the Section 34 fiasco, a suspicious piece of law, and I'm going to say it like it is, a suspicious piece of law was passed at a suspicious time to free some suspects. (Laughter) And it was called, those people are called the Piarco Airport accused. I'm going to have my own lexicon speaking here today. They are the Piarco Airport accused. It was a constitutional outrage of the first order, and I have labeled it the Plot to Pervert Parliament. Our highest institution in our country was perverted. We are dealing with perverts here of an economic and financial nature. Do you get how serious this problem is? There was massive protest. A lot of us in this room took part in the protest in different forms. Most importantly, the American embassy complained, so Parliament was swiftly reconvened, and the law was reversed, it was repealed. That's the word lawyers use. It was repealed. But the point is that Parliament was outwitted in the whole course of events, because what really happened is that, because of the suspicious passage of that law, the law was actually passed into effect on the weekend we celebrated our 50th anniversary of independence, our jubilee of independence. So that is the kind of outrage of the thing. It was kind of a nasty way to get maturation, but we got it, because we all understood it, and for the first time that I could remember, there were mass protests against this corruption. And that gave me a lot of hope. Okay? Those of us who are, sometimes you feel like you're a little bit on your own doing some of this work. That passage of the law and the repeal of the law fortified the case of the Piarco Airport accused. So it was one of those really superior double bluff kind of things that took place.
Torej, kaj se je spremenilo? Nerad omenjam sramotne skrivnosti pred mednarodnem občinstvom, ampak moram. Pred štirimi meseci smo doživeli ustavni škandal. Pravimo mu polomija Poglavja 34, kar je sumljiv zakon, recimo bobu bob, sumljiv zakon, ki je bil sprejet ob sumljivem času za osvoboditev nekaterih osumljencev. (smeh) Imenuje se, ti ljudje se imenujejo obtoženci letališča Piarco. Danes bom imel čisto svoje besedišče. To so obtoženci letališča Piarco. Bilo je ustavni škandal prvega razreda. Nadel sem mu ime Zarota za izprijenje parlamenta. Naša najvišja državna institucija je bila izprijena. Govorimo o izprijencih gospodarske in finančne narave. Razumete, kako resen je ta problem? Zgodil se je ogromen protest. Veliko nas, ki smo danes tukaj, je sodelovalo pri protestu na različne načine. Najbolj pomembno, ameriško veleposlaništvo se je pritožilo, tako se je parlament ponovno sestal, zakon so odpravili, razveljavili. To besedo uporabljajo odvetniki. Razveljavili so ga. Bistvo pa je, da so parlament tekom dogajanja prelisičili, v resnici se je to zgodilo zaradi sumljivega sprejetja zakona. Ta zakon je bil sprejet prav na konec tedna, ko smo proslavljali našo 50. obletnico samostojnosti, na naš jubilej samostojnosti. Na to vrsto ogorčenosti se nanašam. Zoprn način zrelosti, pa vendar smo jo dočakali, ker smo jo vsi razumeli. Prvič, odkar pomnim, se je zgodil masovni protest proti korupciji. To mi je dalo veliko upanja. Nekateri od nas se včasih počutimo, kot da smo sami v tem. Sprejetje in razveljavitev tega zakona sta okrepila primer obtožencev letališča Piarco. Torej je bil eden izmed tistih primerov "dvojnih meril".
But what were they accused of? What was it that they were accused of? I'm being a bit mysterious for those of you out there. What were they accused of? We were trying to build, or reconstruct largely, an airport that had grown outdated. The entire project cost about 1.6 billion dollars, Trinidad and Tobago dollars, and in fact, we had a lot of bid-rigging and suspicious activity, corrupt activity took place. And to get an idea of what it consisted of, and to put it in context in relationship to this whole second myth about it being no big thing, we can look at this second slide here. And what we have here -- I am not saying so, this is the Director of Public Prosecutions in a written statement. He said so. And he's telling us that for the $1.6 billion cost of the project, one billion dollars has been traced to offshore bank accounts. One billion dollars of our taxpayers' money has been located in offshore bank accounts.
Česa pa so bili obtoženi? Kakšne stvari so bili obtoženi? Za nekatere sem malo skrivnosten. Česa so bili obtoženi? Poskušali smo zgraditi, oziroma rekonstruirati zastarelo letališče. Celoten projekt je stal 1,6 milijarde dolarjev, dolarjev Trinidada in Tobaga, združeni tekmeci so načrtno podraževali cene, bilo je veliko sumljivih aktivnosti, koruptivnih aktivnosti. Da vidimo, kako je bilo sestavljeno, v kakšnem kontekstu je v povezavi z vso to drugo neresnico o tem, da ni nič takšnega, si lahko ogledamo naslednji diapozitiv. Tukaj imamo - tega ne trdim jaz, to je javna izjava direktorja Javnega Tožilstva. To je izjavil on. Pravi, da so od 1,6 milijarde, ki je stala ta projekt, eno milijardo izsledili na bančnih računih izven države. Ena milijarda davkoplačevalskega denarja se je nahajala na tujih bančnih računih.
Being the kind of suspicious person I am, I am outraged at that, and I'm going to pause here, I'm going to pause now and again and bring in different things. I'm going to pause here and bring in something I saw in November last year at Wall Street. I was at Zuccotti Park. It was autumn. It was cool. It was damp. It was getting dark. And I was walking around with the protesters looking at the One Wall Street, Occupy Wall Street movement walking around. And there was a lady with a sign, a very simple sign, a kind of battered-looking blonde lady, and the sign was made out of Bristol board, as we say in these parts, and it was made with a marker. And what it said on that sign hit me right in the center. It said, "If you're not outraged, you haven't been paying attention." If you're not outraged by all of this, you haven't been paying attention. So listen up, because we're getting into even deeper waters.
Ker sem po naravi sumničav, sem zgrožen nad tem. Tu se bom malce ustavil, malo se bom ustavil in se posvetil drugim stvarem. Ustavil se bom in omenil nekaj, kar sem videl lanskega novembra na Wall Streetu. Bilo je v parku Zuccotti. Bila je jesen. Bilo je mrzlo, vlažno, temnilo se je. Hodil sem naokrog s protestniki, videl sem stavbo 1 Wall Street, medtem ko je gibanje Occupy Wall Street hodilo naokrog. Tam je bila gospa z zelo preprostim transparentom, svetlolasa gospa, ki je izgledala malce zlorabljeno, transparent je bil narejen iz šeleshamerja, popisanega z markerjem. Napis me je zadel naravnost v srce. Pisalo je: "Če niste zgroženi, potem niste bili dovolj pozorni." Če niste zgroženi ob vsem tem, potem niste bili dovolj pozorni. Zato poslušajte, zdaj se bomo še malo poglobili.
My brain started thinking. Well, what if -- because I'm suspicious like that. I read a lot of spy novels and stuff. What if -- (Laughter) But to make it in these wrongs, you have to read a lot of spy novels and follow some of that stuff, right? (Laughter) But what if this wasn't the first time? What if this is just the first time that the so-and-sos had been caught? What if it had happened before? How would I find out? Now, the previous two examples I gave were to do with construction sector corruption, okay? And I have the privilege at this time to lead the Joint Consultative Council, which is a not-for-profit. We're at jcc.org.tt, and we have the -- we are the leaders in the struggle to produce a new public procurement system about how public money is transacted. So those of you interested in finding out more about it, or joining us or signing up on any of our petitions, please get involved.
Moji možgani so začeli razmišljati. Kaj pa če ... Ker sem sumničav, berem veliko kriminalk in podobnega. Kaj pa če ... (smeh) Da preživiš ob teh krivicah, moraš brati veliko detektivk in spremljati take stvari, kajne? Kaj pa če to ni bilo prvič? Kaj pa če je to samo prvič, da so bili ti ljudje zasačeni? Kaj, če se je to zgodilo že prej? Kako naj bi to izvedel? Prejšnja dva primera, ki sem jih izpostavil, sta zadevala korupcijo v gradbenem sektorju, kajne? Tokrat pa imam čast voditi neprofitno organizacijo Joint Consultative Council. Naš e-naslov je jcc.org.tt in smo vodilni v boju za ustanovitev novega sistema za javne pridobitve, torej način nakazovanja denarja. Tisti, ki vas zanima več o tem, ali bi se nam radi pridružili ali podpisali naše peticije, ste dobrodošli.
But I'm going to segue to another thing that relates, because one of my private campaigns I've been conducting for over three and a half years is for transparency and accountability around the bailout of CL Financial. CL Financial is the Caribbean's largest ever conglomerate, okay? And without getting into all of the details, it is said to have collapsed — I'm using my words very carefully — it's said to have collapsed in January of '09, which is just coming up to nearly four years. In an unprecedented fit of generosity -- and you have to be very suspicious about these people -- in an unprecedented — and I'm using that word carefully — unprecedented fit of generosity, the government of the day signed, made a written commitment, to repay all of the creditors. And I can tell you without fear of contradiction that hasn't happened anywhere else on the planet. Let's understand, because we lack context. People are telling us it's just like Wall Street. It's not just like Wall Street. Trinidad and Tobago is like a place with different laws of physics or biology or something. It's not just like anywhere. (Applause) It's not just like anywhere. It's not just like anywhere. Here is here, and out there is out there. Okay? I'm serious now. Listen. They've had bailouts on Wall Street. They've had bailouts in London. They've had bailouts in Europe. In Africa, they've had bailouts. In Nigeria, six of the major commercial banks collapsed at the same time as ours, eh? It's interesting to parallel how the Nigerian experience has -- how they've treated it, and they've treated it very well compared to us. Nowhere on the planet have all the creditors been bailed out in excess of what their statutory entitlements were. Only here. So what was the reason for the generosity? Is our government that generous? And maybe they are. Let's look at it. Let's look into it.
Prešel bom na drugo stvar, ki se na to nanaša, ena od mojih zasebnih kampanj, ki jo izvajam že več kot tri in pol leta, se zavzema za transparentnost in odgovornost glede finančne injekcije družbi CL Financial. CL Financial je največji karibski konglomerat. In da se ne spustim preveč v podrobnosti, naj bi propadel - skrbno izbiram besede - propadel naj bi januarja 2009, kar se zdaj približuje skoraj štirim letom. V neprimerljivem napadu radodarnosti - o teh ljudeh moramo biti zelo sumničavi - v neprimerljivem - to besedo uporabljam previdno - v neprimerljivem napadu radodarnosti je takratna vlada podpisala, naredila pisno obvezo, da bo poplačala vse upnike. Brez strahu da bi mi kdo oporekal, vam lahko povem, da se to ni zgodilo nikjer drugje na planetu. Razumimo, ker nam primanjkuje konteksta. Ljudje nam pravijo, da je enako kot na Wall Streetu. Ni enako. Trinidad in Tobago je kot kraj z drugačnimi zakoni fizike ali biologije, ali nekaj takšnega. Ni kot kjerkoli drugje. (aplavz) Ni kot kjerkoli drugje. Ni. Tu je tu in tam je tam, prav? Resno govorim. Poslušajte. Na Wall Streetu so dobili denarno pomoč od vlade. Prav tako v Londonu, v Evropi, v Afriki. V Nigeriji je šest izmed največjih poslovnih bank propadlo ob istem času kot pri nas. Zanimivo je primerjati, kako so se v Nigeriji na situacijo odzvali, precej dobro v primerjavi z nami. Nikjer na planetu niso bili vsi upniki poplačani z več, kot je zahtevala njihova ustavna pravica. Samo tu. Kaj je bil torej razlog za to radodarnost? Je naša vlada tako darežljiva? Poglejmo. Poglobimo se.
So I started digging and writing and so and so on, and that work can be found, my personal work can be found at AfraRaymond.com, which is my name. It's a not-for-profit blog that I run. Not as popular as some of the other people, but there you go. (Laughter) But the point is that the bitter experience of Section 34, that plot to pervert Parliament, that bitter experience that took place in August, when we were supposed to be celebrating our independence, going into September, forced me to check myself and recalculate my bearings, and to go back into some of the work, some of the stuff I'd written and some of the exchanges I'd had with the officials to see what was really what. As we say in Trinidad and Tobago, who is who and what is what? Okay? We want to try to recalculate.
Začel sem raziskovati in pisati in tako naprej, moje osebno delo lahko najdete na AfraRaymond.com, kar je moje ime. Upravljam neprofiten blog. Ni tako popularen, kot od koga drugega, pa vseeno. (Smeh) Stvar je v tem, da ta grenka izkušnja z Oddelkom 34, ta zarota, ki naj bi pokvarila parlament, ta grenka izkušnja, ki se je zgodila avgusta, ko naj bi proslavljali svojo samostojnost, na prehodu v september, me je prisililo, da sem se pogledal in ponovno razmislil o mojih navadah. Da sem se vrnil k nekaterim stvarem, ki sem jih napisal, in izmenjavam mnenj, ki sem jih imel z uradniki, da bi videl, kaj je bilo kaj. Kot pravimo v Trinidadu in Tobagu, kdo je kdo in kaj je kaj? Moramo poskusiti ponovno razmisliti.
And I made a Freedom of Information application in May this year to the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance is the next tower over. This is the other context. The Ministry of Finance, we are told, is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. I'm going to take you through a worked example of whether that's really so. The Central Bank in which we stand this morning is immune from the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. So in fact, you can't ask them anything, and they don't have to answer anything. That is the law since 1999.
Tako sem napisal vlogo za Svobodo o informacijah maja letos za finančno ministrstvo. Finančno ministrstvo se nahaja v naslednji stolpnici. To je drugi kontekst. Finančno ministrstvo, kot so nam povedali, je odvisno od določb Zakona o svobodi informacij. Razložil vam bom predelan primer, ki bo pokazal, če je temu res tako. Centralna Banka, v kateri se nahajamo danes, je imuna na določbe tega zakona. Torej, ne morete jih vprašati kar česarkoli, njim pa ni treba na nič odgovoriti. To je uzakonjeno od leta 1999.
So I plunged into this struggle, and I asked four questions. And I'll relate the questions to you in the short form with the reply, so you could understand, as I said, where we are. Here is not like anywhere else.
Tako sem se pognal v ta problem in zastavil štiri vprašanja. Delil bom ta vprašanja z vami v kratki obliki in z odgovorom, da boste lahko razumeli, kot sem rekel, kje smo. Tu ni kot nikjer drugod.
Question number one: I asked to see the accounts of CL Financial, and if you can't show me the accounts -- the Minister of Finance is making statements, passing new laws and giving speeches and so on. What are the figures he's relying on? It's like that joke: I want whatever he's drinking. And they wrote back and said to me, well what do you really mean? So they hit my question with a question.
Vprašanje številka ena: Zaprosil sem za vpogled v račune družbe CL Financial, in če mi jih ne morete pokazati - finančni minister podaja izjave, sprejema nove zakone, daje govore in tako naprej. Na kakšne številke se nanaša on? Kot tista šala: "Dajte mi to, kar pije on." Odpisali so mi in me vprašali: "Na kaj se pa nanašate?" Na moje vprašanje so odgovorili z vprašanjem.
Second point: I want to see who are the creditors of the group who have been repaid? Let me pause here to point out to you all that 24 billion dollars of our money has been spent on this. That is about three and a half billion U.S. dollars coming out of a small -- we used to be resource-rich -- Caribbean country. Okay? And I asked the question, who was getting that three and a half billion dollars?
Drugo vprašanje: Rad bi videl kdo so poplačani upniki te družbe? Tu se bom ustavil, da izpostavim, da je bilo 24 milijard našega denarja porabljenega za to. To je približno tri in pol milijarde ameriških dolarjev, ki so prišli iz majhne - včasih smo imeli veliko naravnih virov - karibske države. Zastavil sem vprašanje, kdo je dobil tistih tri in pol milijard dolarjev?
And I want to pause again to bring up context, because context helps us to get clarity understanding this thing. There's a particular individual who is in the government now. The name of the person doesn't matter. And that person made a career out of using the Freedom of Information Act to advance his political cause. Okay? His name isn't important. I wouldn't dignify it. I'm on a point. The point is, that person made a career out of using the Freedom of Information Act to advance his cause. And the most famous case was what we came to call the Secret Scholarship Scandal, where in fact there was about 60 million dollars in government money that had been dispersed in a series of scholarships, and the scholarships hadn't been advertised, and so and so on and so on. And he was able to get the court, using that act of Parliament, Freedom of Information Act, to release the information, and I thought that was excellent. Fantastic. But you see, the question is this: If it's right and proper for us to use the Freedom of Information Act and to use the court to force a disclosure about 60 million dollars in public money, it must be right and proper for us to force a disclosure about 24 billion dollars. You see? But the Ministry of Finance, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, wrote me and said to me, that information is exempt too. You see? This is what we're dealing with, okay?
Rad bi se ustavil še enkrat, da dobimo kontekst, ki nam bo pomagal jasno razumeti to stvar. Trenutno je v vladi določen posameznik. Njegovo ime ni pomembno. Ta oseba je ustvarila kariero z izkoriščanjem Zakona o svobodi o informacijah za svoje politične interese. Njegovo ime ni pomembno. Ne bi ga počastil s tem. Hočem posredovati bistvo. Bistvo je, da je ta oseba ustvarila celotno kariero z ukrivljanjem tega zakona za svoje interese. Najbolj slaven primer je bil primer, ki ga danes imenujemo Škandal skrivne štipendije, ko je bilo približno 60 milijonov vladnega denarja razdeljenega v vrsto štipendij, teh štipendij pa sploh niso oglaševali, in tako naprej. S pomočjo tistega zakona parlamenta mu je uspelo prisiliti sodišče, z Zakonom o svobodi informacij, da je razkrilo podatke. To se mi je zdelo odlično. Izvrstno. Pa vendar, vprašanje je sledeče: Če je prav, da izrabimo Zakon o svobodi informacij, da izrabimo sodišče, in tako prisilimo razkritje 60 milijonov dolarjev javnega denarja, mora biti prav in pravilno, da prisilimo razkritje 24 milijonov dolarjev. Vidite? Ministrstvo za finance, njegov predstavnik mi je pisal in mi rekel, da je ta podatek prav tako izvzet. Vidite? S tem se ukvarjamo.
The third thing I will tell you is that I also asked for the directors of CL Financial, whether in fact they were making filings under our Integrity in Public Life Act. We have an Integrity in Public Life Act as part of our framework supposed to safeguard the nation's interest. And public officials are supposed to file to say what it is they have in terms of assets and liabilities. And of course I've since discovered that they're not filing, and in fact the Minister of Finance has not even asked them to file. So here we have it. We have a situation where the basic safeguards of integrity and accountability and transparency have all been discarded. I've asked the question in the legal and required fashion. It's been ignored.
Tretja stvar, ki vam jo bom povedal, je, da sem vprašal tudi, če so direktorji družbe CL Financial shranjevali dokumente v skladu z Zakonom o integriteti javnega življenja. Imamo Zakon o integriteti javnega življenja, ki je del našega okvira varovanja nacionalnih interesov. Javni funkcionarji pa morajo dokumentirati vse, da lahko povejo kakšne prednosti in slabosti imajo. Od takrat pa sem seveda ugotovil, da tega ne delajo, da jih finančni minister ni tega niti prosil. To je to. Imamo situacijo, kjer je bilo vse, kar naj bi varovalo našo integriteto, odgovornost in transparentnost, zavrženo. Vprašanje sem postavil v okviru pravnih in zahtevanih pravil. Bilo je ignorirano.
The sort of thing that motivated us around Section 34, we need to continue to work on that. We can't forget it. I have defined this as the single largest expenditure in the country's history. It's also the single largest example of public corruption according to this equation.
Moramo nadaljevati na tem, kar nas je motiviralo pri Poglavju 34. Ne smemo pozabiti. Ta primer sem opredelil kot največji izdatek v zgodovini države. Je tudi največji primer javne korupcije glede na to enačbo.
And this is my reality check. Where you have an expenditure of public money and it is without accountability and it's without transparency, it will always be equal to corruption, whether you're in Russia or Nigeria or Alaska, it will always be equal to corruption, and that is what we are dealing with here.
To me je postavilo na svoje mesto. Ko imate izdatek javnega denarja, ki je brez odgovornosti in brez transparentnosti, bo ta izdatek vedno enak korupciji. Vseeno ali ste v Rusiji, Nigeriji ali na Aljaski, vedno bo enak korupciji, o tem govorimo danes.
I'm going to continue the work to press on, to get some resolution of those matters at the Ministry of Finance. If it is I have to go to court personally, I will do that. We will continue to press on. We will continue to work within JCC.
Nadaljeval bom svoje delo, še naprej bom vztrajal za nove resolucije tistih zadev na finančnem ministrstvu. Če bom moral osebno na sodišče, bom šel. Vztrajali bomo še naprej. Nadaljevali bomo naše delo z JCC.
But I want to step back from the Trinidad and Tobago context and bring something new to the table in terms of an international example. We had the journalist [Heather] Brooke speaking about her battle against government corruption, and she introduced me to this website, Alaveteli.com. And Alaveteli.com is a way for us to have an open database for Freedom of Information applications, and speak with each other. I could see what you're applying for. You could see what I applied for and what replies I got. We can work on it together. We need to build a collective database and a collective understanding of where we are to go to the next point. We need to increase the consciousness.
Rad pa bi se malo oddaljil od Trinidada in Tobaga in dodal nekaj novega, primer mednarodnega kova. Novinarka Rebecca Brooke nam je govorila o njenem boju proti vladni korupciji, seznanila me je s spletno stranjo, Alaveteli.com. Alaveteli.com nam omogoča odprto podatkovno bazo za vloge za svobodo informacij in medsebojni dialog. Lahko vidim, za kaj se zavzemate. Vi lahko vidite, za kaj sem se zavzel jaz in kakšne odzive sem dobil. Na tem lahko delamo skupaj. Ustvariti moramo kolektivno podatkovno bazo in kolektivno razumevanje, kam moramo do naslednje točke. Povečati moramo zavedanje.
The final thing I want to say is in relation to this one, which is a lovely website from India called IPaidABribe.com. They have international branches, and it's important for us to tune into this one. IPaidABribe.com is really important, a good one to log on to and see.
Zadnja stvar, ki bi jo rad omenil je v povezavi s tem, je ta zelo lepa indijska spletna stran, ki se imenuje IPaidABribe.com. Imajo mednarodne podružnice, za nas pa je pomembno, da jo spremljamo. Spletna stran IPaidABribe.com je zelo pomembna, priporočam prijavo in ogled.
I'm going to pause there. I'm going to ask you for your courage. Discard the first myth; it is a crime. Discard the second myth; it is a big thing. It's a huge problem. It's an economic crime. And let us continue working together to betterment in this situation, stability and sustainability in our society. Thank you.
Tu se bom ustavil. Prosil vas bom za pogum. Zavržite prvo neresnico; korupcija je zločin. Zavržite drugo neresnico; korupcija je resna stvar. Je ogromen problem. Je gospodarski zločin. Nadaljujmo s skupnim delom za izboljšavo te situacije, za stabilnost in trajnost v naši družbi. Hvala.