The prime minister never tires of telling us that we should respect our institutions. For such a thing to be possible though, they have to be respectable. And sadly most of them are not. This explains why Navin Ramgoolam’s pleas for respect ring increasingly hollow, not to say disingenuous. He’s no Aretha Franklin, that’s for sure. In fact, so hopelessly compromised are several of our institutions that the best option is to simply put them out of their misery. Sadly, the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) is one of these irretrievably lost causes. It’s ineffectual, expensive and increasingly politically-motivated. And, in its current form, there’s very little worth salvaging from the corruption watchdog. That’s why it’s ECO-time for the ICAC.

It’s been more than ten years since the MMM/MSM government got rid of the Economic Crime Office and it’s still difficult to take those behind the decision seriously when it comes to combating corruption. ECO, of course, was dissolved for all the wrong reasons, namely because it was investigating allegations made against Jayen Cuttaree, and its demise was a very sad day for Mauritius. Shortly after coming to power in 2005, Navin Ramgoolam justifi ed amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act (POCA) by saying that “there is wide consensus in the country: the ICAC has not delivered.” He even described the fight against corruption as a choice between “a clean country or the backyard of a banana republic”.

Seven years later, not only has the ICAC not delivered but its very existence is counterproductive. Indeed, by allowing politicians to pass the buck on corruption issues, this deaf, dumb and blind watchdog has become an enabler rather than an enemy of graft. Worse, Sheela Naidoo Sooben, a senior investigator, has accused the commission of contravening its own internal procedures during a recent promotion exercise. It’s a worrying state of affairs when we can’t even trust our anti-corruption agency to respect the rules. It’s a bit like having a lifeguard who can’t swim. All this precludes it from acting as a deterrent, which is one of its main raisons d’être. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of this point. Because it’s impossible to uncover all cases of corruption, it’s vital to have a dissuasive force that makes people think twice before engaging in dubious behaviour. Needless to say, the ICAC has failed miserably on this count. But perhaps the strongest argument for disbanding this white elephant is financial. In these economically straitened times, we can ill afford to be spending in excess of Rs100 million on an organization that offers such an atrocious return on investment. Shutting down the ICAC would thus be a good way of saving cash without the downside of actually losing something.

Of course, a lot will hinge on the conclusions of its investigation into the MedPoint scandal. One could even say that it’s make or break time for the anti-corruption agency. If it fails in this task, the ICAC will definitely have outlived its usefulness. We’re going to need industrial strength detergents to clean up our backyard, not a shockingly expensive balye coco.