No one parachutes right into corruption

In statements to the talk show Catalejo, the Comptroller General of the Republic pointed to poor discipline and unlawful behavior as the trigger of this phenomenon.

Various Authors / February 15, 2014

A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

 

As a deviation that, once unleashed, often reaches unimagined limits, corruption may start to take shape in hardly noticeable trifling matters which eventually reveal the traces, now stealthy, now unvarnished, of a long chain of decay, putrefaction and disintegration…

This description came from Gladys Bejerano Portela, who has witnessed the aforesaid sequence in her capacity as both Comptroller General of the Republic and an ordinary citizen concerned, like your average mortal, with putting beans on her table.

On one occasion this woman, charged with one of Cuba’s most complex institutional and moral battles, stood there waiting for the receipt for something she had bought in a hard currency shop. Seeing her insistence, the salesclerk snapped at her: “What’s the problem, lady? Do you have to justify your purchase or what?”… To which she replied: “No, you’re the one who must justify what you sold to me!”

The Comptroller’s anecdote is intended to illustrate the complexities of dealing with this rotten practice which can be summed up in just one word but takes countless forms that in the present circumstances our country is not equipped with the social unity to prevent and tackle.

“When you go to the farmers’ market and warn a seller that the scale is tipped and therefore giving inaccurate measurements, even those who are waiting in line get upset about the delay to the point of urging us to back off,” she remarks by way of example.

Never mind that the managers are responsible for the observance of consumer protection rules in their sales outlets, the customer is both entitled and duty-bound to demand honesty however hard and time-consuming this day-to-day struggle can be, lest many irregularities end up in “no man’s land”, as befits the aims of those who benefit from the lack of proper control. And, underlying that “carelessness”, may be the seeds of corruption, a social phenomenon that post-revolution Cuba has fought since day one and which has been in the hands of a state body like the Office of the Comptroller General for the last five years.

Such were the situations described by Gladys Bejerano in Catalejo, the monthly talk show aired by the Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC).

Why does a society become corrupted?

According to the Comptroller, failure to abide by the existing rules is a most common prelude to corruption: if you stop observing the law or fulfilling your individual obligations, you are fostering non-compliance.

“No one parachutes right into corruption. The most serious processes we have delved into started with indiscipline and lawlessness. Say, a self-righteous manager who decides everything by himself and never relies on their subordinates is making a beeline for corruption, even if things don’t go that far in the end.

“As soon as they start doing as they please, they think they deserve the sky and go over the top, and that can’t be allowed. Control doesn’t mean persecution and oppression, but an offer of help, because what you do needs to be checked and corrected to avoid future problems.”

Gladys Bejerano praised control, together with a culture of prevention among managers and employees, as the foremost antidote for these occurrences. Further on she added: “This is a battle we must all wage”.

Among the findings of the latest National Internal Control Verification she mentioned the non-fulfillment of rules that were newly-established and therefore unclassifiable as outdated or obsolete, as they respond to recent changes. This behavior leads to shortcomings, since these rules and provisions are guidelines and tools to do things the right way, but their effectiveness is ultimately contingent on the individual.

Dust under the carpet

She also stressed that the fight against illegality depends on a process of understanding that begins when a manager gives instructions, since a Ministry’s ruling is often reported without any explanation about its rationale or purpose.

“Some even go so far as to say, ‘The higher-ups never get tired of overloading us with work!’ Such a stance on the part of those who hold responsible positions leads people to lose interest in and take no heed of discipline. You can dissent and state your views, but the regulations must be upheld for as long as they are in force. No country can be organized and governed if everyone does what they like”, she said.

An additional Achilles’ heel underscored by the Comptroller is management’s failure to demand compliance, which she thinks may be put down to the poor qualification and/or exhaustion of some leaders who should hand their posts over to others more capable or willing to do the job, either because they have other interests in mind or have no moral authority to lead.

“The loss of these values is another bump in the road towards the elimination of corruption,” she remarked. “Discipline and honesty are the hardest hit. Withholding or twisting the facts is another way of lying; giving vague information about a task or concealing a problem to avoid disciplinary measures or replacements is another form of dishonesty.

“Sometimes in a board meeting a sort of ‘non-aggression pact’ is made to hush up your real opinion and stay out of trouble, and then the same ones who attended the meeting come up with a given assessment.

“Once we received a complaint from a customer and decided to take part in a discussion held in the relevant entity, where we found out that they were having problems that no one had said anything about, and we were told that it was because they thought the responsible person would be in trouble as a result. He knew what was happening and yet he didn’t do anything about it. Reprimanding a colleague amounts to lending them a hand, and if they take it the wrong way more severe measures could be taken. At any rate, we have to reactivate the fighting spirit we once had,” said the Comptroller.
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Participate and feel

She also pointed out that it’s very difficult to succeed if you don’t get all workers involved in this struggle and give them the proper information about whatever goes on in their organization, and that responsibility falls entirely on the management’s shoulders. “Fuel consumption is an example of a thorny issue that is not always dissected,” she added. “If you go to an enterprise and tell the managers there are fuel problems they get worried and amazed, but they have kept some vehicles in the repair shop for years that ‘keep consuming’ and others that, when we did the math, seem to be using the same amount of fuel they would if they were rolling out there 24/7, which is utterly impossible.

“Then they hold that they were not assigned enough fuel to transport the employees and do the enterprise’s job, and therefore the cars for administrative services must be overexploited, an argument that no one debates,” she commented.

Collateral liability keeps many people awake because it’s not about corruption but failure to fulfill an obligation, which paves the way for a problem to arise and remain in place. However, Gladys Bejerano was adamant about the importance of discussing all problems, as they will go away only if someone takes full responsibility for them.

She recalled the widespread reasoning that Cuba could be left cadre-less because no one likes to have responsible positions. “We cannot accept a problem without anyone assuming responsibility for it. When business is going well everyone wants to get the credit. We cannot be only in charge of the victories but take the rough with the smooth. If you’re scared, you cannot be a manager, and if you’re honest there’s nothing to be afraid of,” she concluded.

A resolution on damage assessment was recently approved, but some people disagree with lumbering the management with any losses, even if they are responsible for them.

“Whoever is responsible must take the rap. No one will bear the blame for a hurricane that wrecked what was made, but if something in storage goes bad because it was not properly protected, the causes must be analyzed and someone must answer for it. Prevention and guidance come first, but demanding that all requirements be met is no less educational.”

Cuba, she underlined, has set a worldwide example in the struggle against corruption and is the only country whose reports include a detailed description of the facts rather than just figures. Nevertheless, not only do some events go largely undetected, sometimes nothing is done about them for a needlessly long time while it’s decided whether the relevant fault can be considered a case of corruption. The diversion of resources and other violations leading up to the embezzlement and misappropriation of state-owned assets is quite recurrent in many entities where the level of detection is very low, she emphasized.

She made it clear that when someone somewhere complains that they are undergoing no end of audits it’s because they are facing problems there, since these inspections are scheduled every 18 months. On the other hand, a good manager should be glad to have audits every year, and it’s the auditors who should be complaining that they have to keep going to the same place because of a manager’s bad job.

Among the steps taken by the Office of the Comptroller General is the State Control Commission, entrusted with the study of the causes and conditions that gave rise to the most significant cases. Every action is preceded by a great deal of preventive work and, even if managers are expected to be more demanding with every passing, prevention is the key, and a responsibility that lies as much with the Comptroller as with those who handle our resources or hold managerial posts.

She stressed the importance of Resolution 60 (on the Control System) to improve efficiency and curb corruption, as this standard centers on the environment to be controlled and the actions to identify and prevent possible risks.

The people denounce

“We must have teamwork, on-site supervision and adequate training. Awareness of a problem and the ability to foresee it so that nobody has to be called to account for it are paramount needs. An honest person can stop or minimize a complication, but if they are not qualified and their moral values and self-esteem are crippled, anything can happen,” she said.

“As a rule, the harm caused by corruption is not fully quantified, but it’s huge inasmuch as it affects those involved in the matter as much as those who knew but looked the other way and whose negligence made the crime possible.

“The latter,” she pointed out, “cannot be labeled as corrupt, for they may have just been unaware of, irresponsible for or careless about the facts. But corruption equals degradation, and it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event no more than something that you wait for the verdict of court of law to correct by dictating in-house ethical measures.”

Many wrongdoings are denounced by the people themselves. The Office of the Comptroller receives reports of embezzlement, corruption and corporate misconduct. If the facts are out of keeping with the relevant entity’s powers, directions are laid down to right the wrong. Some of the problems thus reported which fall within its competence are taken care of immediately and others are sent to the proper authorities for their consideration. From then on the Comptroller keeps track of and submits the dossier to an audit.

Besides, the Ministries have an obligation to present the authorities with an action plan and tap the commission in charge of its review. This makes it possible for them to be there in an advisory capacity and ensure the case is treated impartially and effectively. Moreover, the identity of the person who made the report must not be revealed if that is their wish. In this connection, the Comptroller frowned on some entities known to be in the habit of showing more interest in who blew the whistle than they do in the subject of the denunciation.

She recalled that in the early days of her office, over 95% of people’s complaints were anonymous, whereas today 78% of the complainants sign their letters, a sign of the citizenry’s confidence in our investigations and our willingness to cope with the problems. She also warned about the treatment given by the auditors, since harsh though their criticism may be, they must know how to relate to people without compromising their professional ethics.

“That you come from a control body empowers you to neither invade an entity nor mistreat its staff, because there are crooks out there but also many honest and hard-working people,” she stressed.

Everything must be audited

Everybody sees other people’s faults but may forget that the circumstances conducive to corruption may exist anywhere. “Even in our office you could find, for instance, weak points and lack of professionalism which may jeopardize our work, not to mention the occasional attempts to bribe our auditors,” she remarked.

“At first our audits were quite dispersed, but now they are focused on strategic issues such as the three stages of the state budget –to wit, planning, implementation and liquidation– which used to go largely unchecked.”

She also explained that auditing is about looking into everything, not just crime and corruption. However, what matters is to develop the right technique to ascertain every fact. In some places we have been unable to prove wrongdoing, but we have found confirmation of misuse, squandering and mismanagement of their assets, among other problems.

The Comptroller said that not every visit of her office is made on the presumption of crime or corruption. If a financial audit finds problems, the auditors move on to, and act as experts of, a special review audit of any written evidence about the way the process of tax inclusion is taking place. Our follow-up procedures are particularly important in the case of the revolution’s top priorities, namely the land leasing and exploitation process, the program to boost cooperative production, and whatever contributes to providing food to the population.

She announced a change in her office’s strategy, from auditing isolated organizations to auditing root processes, considering that sometimes several organizations have similar objective and subjective problems.

Regarding the sale of construction materials to the population, for one, they don’t begin the audit at the sales outlet, but in the factories, where they inquire into production costs, quality, technological discipline… and from there they jump to the wholesalers and retailers.

In summary, deconstructing the whole program requires several on-site audits and checks as well as meetings with individuals who have received benefits and bonuses if you want to get and evaluate the whole picture.

As befits its role, the office submits nationwide supervision guidelines for approval by the Council of State which will govern every audit they conduct. The processes based on contracts and inventories, which are the source of most corruption cases, are examined in minute detail.

They also carry out joint investigations with other control-related state bodies which might dig out crime or corruption, but the main purpose is to contribute to the audited entity’s improvement.

Gladys Bejerano recalled Raúl’s words to the party conference, when he said that there has always been corruption due to individual greed, but made an appeal to get rid of it as a social phenomenon and stop it from going beyond the revolution’s characteristics and purposes.

About the way the media covers cases of corruption, he explained that their publication not always has the expected results, as some people overlook the warning light and fail to do better, thinking that it’s just a local problem that doesn’t concern them at all.

She seized on the meeting to urge all journalists to work together in order to carry out the Cuban people’s mission of stemming and doing away with every form of corruption.

Office of the Comptroller General

In December 2008, President Raúl Castro informed the Parliament that there were plans to open an institution designed to perform as the Cuban state’s top supervising body.

The Office of the Comptroller General was established on August 1st, 2009 as an offshoot of the National Audit Office created in 1995 and replaced in 2001 by the Ministry of Audit and Control.

Auditing was the first item on the Ministry of Finance’s agenda, while the Ministry of Audit and Control was tasked with supervision and tax investigations as tools to fight corruption. In this respect, the fact that it depended on governmental institutions –since it ranked alongside the ministries– turned out to be its main weakness.

One of the first steps in the process of improving Cuban institutions was the establishment of the Office of the Comptroller General to assist the parliament as the state’s and the government’s top supervising body in charge of putting forward or conducting policies for the protection of personal assets, guiding the internal control system on the basis of Resolution 60, and implementing control in the most consequential cases in order to prevent and tackle any symptom of corruption.

This office has its own rules, standards and procedures pursuant to the international regulatory provisions laid down for any high-level supervising entity. Its payroll is 86% covered and, according to Gladys Bejerano, the current shortage of auditors stems from the fact that any potential candidate must have at least ten years’ experience, five of them at provincial level.

This year marks both the institution’s fifth anniversary and the closing of its first stage of work.