Transparency Institute urges Govt to prioritise campaign finance laws

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Trans­paren­cy In­sti­tute (TT­TI) is call­ing on Gov­ern­ment to im­me­di­ate­ly pri­ori­tise cam­paign fi­nance re­form leg­is­la­tion.

The TT­TI made the call in a re­lease yes­ter­day, as it not­ed the mur­der of busi­ness­man Dan­ny Guer­ra in San­gre Grande on March 13 and re­ports of pos­si­ble the­o­ries for his killing.

Of­fer­ing con­do­lences to Guer­ra’s fam­i­ly, friends and the San­gre Grande com­mu­ni­ty, the TT­TI said, “The in­di­vid­ual’s death has shocked the na­tion—not on­ly be­cause of the vi­o­lence in­volved, but al­so be­cause of the broad­er ques­tions it rais­es about the in­ter­sec­tion of mon­ey, in­flu­ence, and pol­i­tics in T&T. Ar­ti­cles in both News­day and the Guardian have stat­ed al­le­ga­tions that the busi­ness­man had made large po­lit­i­cal con­tri­bu­tions, with claims rang­ing be­tween $5 mil­lion and $20 mil­lion.

“While the mo­tives for this heinous act re­main un­der ac­tive in­ves­ti­ga­tion, this case un­der­scores a deep­er and long­stand­ing na­tion­al vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty: the ab­sence of trans­paren­cy and reg­u­la­tion in cam­paign fi­nanc­ing. Un­der the cur­rent frame­work gov­erned by the Rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Peo­ple’s Act (ROPA), there are sig­nif­i­cant gaps that leave the pub­lic in the dark. Spend­ing lim­its ap­ply on­ly to in­di­vid­ual can­di­dates and are wide­ly re­gard­ed as out­dat­ed and un­en­force­able. Crit­i­cal­ly, there is no re­quire­ment for po­lit­i­cal par­ties to dis­close their fi­nanciers, nor is there a com­pre­hen­sive sys­tem to track how funds are raised and spent.”

It said the lack of trans­paren­cy cre­ates an en­vi­ron­ment where:

• The scale and sources of po­lit­i­cal fi­nanc­ing re­main un­known

• In­di­vid­u­als or en­ti­ties may wield dis­pro­por­tion­ate in­flu­ence with­out pub­lic scruti­ny

• Ques­tions around po­lit­i­cal re­la­tion­ships, fi­nan­cial back­ing, and po­ten­tial con­flicts of in­ter­est emerge on­ly af­ter crises oc­cur

The TT­TI added, “When in­di­vid­u­als are known—or al­leged—to play sig­nif­i­cant roles in fi­nanc­ing po­lit­i­cal cam­paigns, the ab­sence of clear, pub­licly avail­able in­for­ma­tion fu­els spec­u­la­tion, un­der­mines pub­lic trust, and leaves crit­i­cal ques­tions unan­swered.

Apart from urg­ing the Gov­ern­ment to pass the Rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Peo­ple’s (Amend­ment) Bill to deal with cam­paign fi­nanc­ing, the TT­TI al­so called for:

Manda­to­ry dis­clo­sure of po­lit­i­cal do­na­tions and fi­nanciers, par­tic­u­lar­ly above de­fined thresh­olds

Clear and en­force­able lim­its on cam­paign spend­ing for both can­di­dates and po­lit­i­cal par­ties

Strength­ened over­sight and en­force­ment pow­ers for the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC)

The TT­TI said T&T could ref­er­ence coun­tries Cana­da and the UK for good ex­am­ples of how to de­vel­op good cam­paign fi­nance leg­is­la­tion.

“With­out trans­paren­cy in how po­lit­i­cal pow­er is fi­nanced, Trinidad and To­ba­go re­mains vul­ner­a­ble to un­due in­flu­ence, pol­i­cy cap­ture, and ero­sion of pub­lic trust. This mo­ment must not pass with­out ac­tion. The trag­ic loss of life, com­bined with the unan­swered ques­tions sur­round­ing mon­ey and pol­i­tics, re­in­forces the ur­gent need for re­form. Trans­paren­cy is not op­tion­al—it is es­sen­tial,” the TT­TI said.

“TT­TI stands ready to work with pol­i­cy­mak­ers, civ­il so­ci­ety, and the pub­lic to ad­vance mean­ing­ful cam­paign fi­nance re­form that pro­tects both our democ­ra­cy and our cit­i­zens.”