Human beings are corruptible by nature. So is his physical body, which when it exhausts its life cycle is thrown into a stinking decomposition. So is his moral fiber, which is sometimes strong and resistant, but which all too often weakens or breaks down altogether when falling into supposedly irresistible temptations. While corruption remains in the private sphere and does not damage society, it is a private vice. But when it gallops through the public sphere and digs into the treasury, it is urgent to stop it, unmask the perpetrators, punish them and remove them from the institutions. To everybody. And forever, lest they become repeat offenders.
Because it is in human nature, corruption is in all countries. Although not all the same. According to Transparency International's 2023 report, which scores 180 states from zero to one hundred – whether they are very corrupt or not – Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Norway and Singapore would be exemplary, with indices from 90 to 83. While countries such as Somalia, Venezuela, Syria, South Sudan, Yemen, North Korea, Nicaragua, Haiti or Equatorial Guinea, at war or under dictatorships, close the list with regrettable rates of 17 to 11.
This preamble comes on the heels of the Koldo case, which has been rocking Spanish politics for a week and a half. Let's start with the global context: on Transparency's list, Spain occupies position 36, in the first quarter of the table, with an index of 60, and is placed between Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (beautiful Caribbean archipelago) and Botswana (African country with lots of diamonds and good income per capita). And it surpasses, in Europe, Italy - where the mafia parasitizes the Administration a lot -, Poland or Greece. A reporter might shout: "Al loro, we're not that bad!" But the wisest thing is to ask how to improve, and especially considering that in the 2023 Transparency report we are the same as in the 2021 report.
More or less, corruption affects all governments. Canadian historian Michel Brunet said it is only a serious problem if it affects 15% of public resources. De facto, then, is accepted. But it shouldn't be like that. What Koldo did with his accomplices, thanks to the position in which Minister Ábalos had imprudently placed him, was to take advantage of the covid emergency and invoice more than fifty million euros in medical equipment . They had enough of moving contacts and inflating prices. The masks came to multiply the value of the unit by ten, and in extreme cases by twenty or more. Runaway, the law of supply and demand leads to thievery.
Fifty million is a lot of money. But in the second quarter of 2020, the State, the autonomous regions and the Spanish councils paid a total of forty times this figure - more than two billion - to obtain essential health equipment. Controls did not rule under the state of alarm, masks and also other products were missing and imports could disappear at any airport stop, in the hands of a better bidder. Achievers and commissioners, some experts, others simple opportunists, took advantage of the institutions and financially harmed the citizens they seemed to help.
None of this is beyond repair. But we must prevent it from happening again, and from the start it is best to reveal all the tricks. For this reason, the Spanish Government got it right by proposing an investigative commission to Congress to review all the public awards of those days, regardless of which party was in charge. And, for this reason, the PP is making a mistake by creating an alternative committee in the Senate, so that Sánchez, Armengol, Illa and other socialists can parade there. This commission, conceived as a mob, aspires to make the Senate, which controls the PP, a ban on private hunting. But only the attempt of Congress, if it finally clears up all the trivia, whoever falls, could have widespread healing effects.
The citizens already know what the PP of the PSOE thinks and vice versa. Now it would be great if they agreed for once, to prevent unscrupulous people from putting their hands in our pockets again. And, if they don't know how to do it, let them spare us at least the moral lessons relating to the conduct of others, and at the same time blind, deaf and dumb before their own excesses.
