The Integrity Commission engaged primary and secondary school students in their observance of International Anti-Corruption Day yesterday.
Their observance took place yesterday at the NALIS Auditorium, Port-of-Spain under the theme “United against corruption for development, peace and security”.
It featured performances by the St. Francois Girls’ College, Grand Riviere AC Primary School, San Juan South Secondary School, and St. Gabriel’s Girls’ RC Primary School centred around raising awareness about anti-corruption.
They performed in the commission’s speech band competition in Tobago.
Chairman of the commission, Justice Melville Baird said they “want to begin working against corruption at street level.”
He said, “I want the children and the young people who would be the future of Trinidad and Tobago - I want them involved in this anti-corruption move. I want them sensitised to integrity and the need for honesty...the idea is these are the members of society, the future of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Baird explained that acts of dishonesty can constitute as corrupt practices such as “deliberately breaking the red light.”
He also said they want to “utterly resist attempts for members of the public to pay bribes to officials to perform the duties for which they are being paid to perform.”
In his welcome address to the students and guests, Baird described corruption as a “noxious affliction” which “must be eliminated”.
In the latest edition (2018) of Transparency International’s “Corruption Perception Index”, Trinidad and Tobago scored 41 out of 100.
In this scale, zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
The country has, however, improved its score from 35 out of 100 in 2015 and 2016.