Bishop to blow the whistle on Corruption

Political Corruption

We are all too familiar with the corruption that goes on in Central Government. There seems to be a new case every day, in fact politicians spend most of their time in parliament either accusing each other or defending themselves of accusations of corruption.
Does this mean that there is no corruption in local government, I doubt it very much.
As long as you have a system where people have access to easy money with no end of supply where the tap can be turned on through taxes, rates and fines it will always have the temptation to make people act in a dishonest way.

The Law of Attraction
There is a law of the universe that is called the law of attraction and this is where like minded people become attracted to each other and form groups.
Society has some groups where the members wear uniforms and patches and they get involved in drug dealing and physical crime.
Then we have the plain clothes groups who get involved in drinking from what has become known as the gravy train. To get more of the gravy they commit what is known as white collar crime. I was interested to learn that women commit more white collar crime than men do. The reason white collar crime is so popular that there is no blood shed, it is easy to hide and any many people turn a blind eye to it.

Local Corruption
I’ve seen a lot of white collar crime over the years . I’ve mixed in all circles and I can honestly say that it as not so much the gang patch groups that we should fear but the white collar workers who make a living from the gravy train.
There will always be a group of people in any town who seem hell bent on putting there own interests before the good of the community and they are the ones that spoil it for others.

Sister Cities
Some people are saying that sister cities groups which involves people in senior positions in local government are milking the system
For example in my town we have just seen 15 local people take a trip to Japan to sign a sister city trade agreement with a Japanese City. Some of these people who went to Japan had their travel costs paid for by either the members of the Chamber of Commerce or the ratepayers. Most of those that went benefited in some way personally. People such as the president of the local Chamber of Commerce owns a honey business. The trip gave him an opportunity to sell some more of his honey to Japan.
It is understood that the local Mayor volunteered to have her photograph published on the ice cream wrapper which contained some of the Chamber presidents honey.
We read through the news media that several retail outlets were secured to sell products but the tour party have provided no written report for the public. If the public are doing the paying for anyone on the trip then surely they deserve a written report on who benefited and what was the cost of the exersise.

Annual Reports
Many District Councils own shares in several organizations and each one of those should make available to the ratepayers a copy of their annual report. Each report should be available for viewing in the main reception area of the District Council.
In our council the only reports available for viewing are those they want the public to see which is their own.
I have been trying to get a copy of the Annual Report of a council owned trust but neither the District Council or the trust itself is prepared to give me one.

Complaints
For several years I have used the letters to the Editor column of the local newspaper to complain but they have since denied me of that opportunity so I no have no option but to take my complaints to the official authorities.
I laid my first official complaint to the Internal Affairs department this week. The complaint relates to how some of the local hotel gaming machine money is being distributed.
I have for many years tried to change attitudes and behavior on my own but I have now decided to use the official channels instead.
From now on if I see something that I don’t believe is above board then I will pass it on the appropriate authorities.
I know people call me a stirrer buts its either that or sit back and watch my home town become raped by a white collar group of self centered people.
I encourage anyone who has a complaint don’t fight your own battles make your complaint through the official channels because that is what we pay them for.