Contractor General Greg Christie , the anti-corruption czar, has been speaking about the environment in which corruption thrives. He said that by all accounts corruption is one of the substantial threats which "we face as a people and as a country in Jamaica. It is, without doubt, one of the biggest enemies of value creation at all levels of our society".

KEN CHAPLIN

In a recent address under the topic, "Corruption and its threat to value creation in Jamaica", at the School of Business Administration, University of Technology, Christie defined corruption as the misuse of entrusted power for private gain. While the concept is typically viewed as a public-sector phenomenon, corruption knows no bounds, for it is as much a creature of the private sector as it is of the public sector.

Further, Christie added that in the broadest terms, corruption is therefore characterised as the abuse of authority - whether it be economic, political or administrative - which leads to personal or group benefits at the expense and legal rights of the individual, a specific community or the society as a whole. Jamaica's Corruption Preventative Act, which was enacted in 2001, outlines at least 14 broad circumstances in which the criminal offence of corruption in the public office context will arise.

One of the main offences which is prescribed is that a public servant commits an act of corruption if, in the performance of his public function, he does any act or omits to do any act, for the purpose of obtaining any illicit benefit for himself or for any other person.

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