Edmond Campbell, Senior News Coordinator

MUNRO

Government Senator Professor Trevor Munroe says the Caribbean is one of few regions in the world where there is no restriction on foreign corporations providing a gift or money to national parties.

According to Prof. Munroe, the donation of funds from Trafigura Beheer to the People's National Party (PNP) would have been prohibited under British law.

He said in the United Kingdom the existing legislation would outlaw such a contribution. "Both in the United Kingdom and Canada, donations from foreign entities, corporations and nationals is banned," he stressed.

Code of conduct

In an interview yesterday, Prof. Munroe said the controversy surrounding the Trafigura Beheer donation underscored the need not only for legislation to address campaign financing, but also the drafting of a code of conduct to govern gift giving.

In 2002, Munroe brought a resolution to the Senate which spoke to the funding of political parties.

He said since that time, the rules of the game have not changed, which allowed the two major political parties to accept donations from whatever source, national, regional or international.

Prof. Munroe is pushing for a change of the rules to reflect growing consensus on the subject.

In this regard, the Government Senator said he would be taking a resolution to the Senate today, calling for urgent action on the funding of political parties based on near unanimity among the major stakeholders.

With specific reference to the Trafigura contribution, Prof. Munroe said to create a level playing field, each party would have to declare its sources of funding and donors "for any judgement to be arrived at as to what is appropriate or not."