BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FORMER Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Patrick Martin has examined and penned his views on the 2019 Rule of Law Index for St. Kitts and Nevis, which is a report of the World Justice Project.
He explained that the Index is an opinion poll of the state of rule of law in a country and that it was conducted between May and November 2018.
Over 500 residents had participated and the Federation is ranked second in CARICOM, fifth out of 30 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and 30th out of 126 countries globally.
Dr. Martin further explained that the Rule of Law Index for the Federation is an opinion poll of the ruling coalition’s good governance performance, noting, “In essence, it was a mid-term performance evaluation whose findings ought to be used to build on strengths and eliminate weaknesses.”
The Rule of Law Index is divided into eight factors: Constraints on Government Powers; Absence of Corruption; Open Government; Fundamental Rights; Order and Security; Regulatory Enforcement; Civil Justice; and Criminal Justice.
Each factor contains several sub-factors and the survey respondents were asked to score them according to a range from 0 (lowest) to 1 (highest).
Dr. Martin however pointed out that like all other surveys and polls, the Rule of Law Index only captures the state of opinion at the time the survey was done. “As such, the Index is not a forecast. Opinions do change. Nevertheless, because of its sound scientific methodology, there is high confidence that the findings of the poll agree with the views of the general population with regard to rule of law.”
Overall, the poll affirmed that St. Kitts and Nevis is a nation of laws and further along the rule of law journey than most; first in the OECS and second in CARICOM are laudable rankings, but they only portray the big picture.
“What matters most are the opinions on the ground and how residents and likely voters scored a particular issue or set of issues,” Dr. Martin said. “Accordingly, a close examination of the individual scores for each factor and their sub-factors is warranted.”
He pointed out that among the instructive findings was the low overall score of 0.41 (equivalent to 41%) given to ‘Open Government’ and that three of its four sub-factors – ‘Right to Information’, ‘Publicized Laws and Government Data’ and ‘Complaints Mechanisms’ each scored below the regional average by a considerable margin.
“A score less than 0.5 (or 50%) may be construed as a failing grade. Thus, the Rule of Law Index proved that lack of freedom of information was a major concern of the population in 2018,” he added.
“Also worthy of note was the factor, ‘Constraints on Government Powers’, which scored 0.64. Of its six sub-factors, the scores ‘Independent Auditing’ (0.51) and ‘Sanctions for Official Misconduct’ (0.52) may be construed as near fails. Each score recorded a 12% decline in performance compared to the previous year. Undoubtedly, lack of Government Accountability and lack of Internal Control of Malfeasance were concerns in 2018,” Dr. Martin claimed.
He identified, what he termed a few curiosities in the factor scores, noting ‘Open Government’ scored 0.41 while ‘Absence of Corruption’ scored 0.67.
“A closer alignment of these scores was anticipated because lack of Open Government increases the risk of corruption,” he opined.
The former CMO however stated that overall, citizens could be proud of rule of law strengths affirmed by survey respondents, adding that ‘Fundamental Rights’ had scored 0.72 and ‘Civil Justice, scored 0.75.
“People were satisfied that Fundamental Rights and Freedoms are upheld by the system of civil justice, and that much of the credit is due to judicial and legal practitioners who assiduously fulfil the principles of Separation of Powers and the Rule of Law.
“In fact, where the Federation appears to be punching above its weight, an OECS-based institution is firmly in the mix. In the vanguard of Rule of Law is the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court which has unlimited jurisdiction in the Member States. Truly, OECS Member States are indigenous partners, not foreign powers,” Dr. Martin said.
Stressing on the value of the Rule of Law Index, Dr. Martin said it allows residents to freely express areas of concern and confidence in a scientific manner, as well as providing leaders with objective critique which enables performance adjustments.
Conclusively, the former CMO is of the view that for the 2020 version of the Rule of Law Index, St. Kitts and Nevis could score highly across all factors and attain a top 10 global ranking.
However, to attain that ranking, he posited that it would require “the will of the people to continuously demand rapid implementation of essential factors of Rule of Law such as Freedom of Government Statistics and Information, robust public accounting of the expenditure of Public Funds, and impartial regulatory enforcement.
