Strengthening Jamaica’s Anticorruption Policy With an Independent Anticorruption Agency by Curt A. Brown MS, University College of the Caribbean/Commonwealth of Learning, 2013 BS, University College of the Caribbean, 2010 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Policy and Administration Walden University May 2018 Abstract Corruption is a kind of behavior that undermines good governance. Current research has suggested that Jamaica’s present anticorruption policy is ineffective, and needs strengthening. A civic organization in Jamaica has advocated for an independent anticorruption agency, with both investigative and prosecutorial powers to strengthen Jamaica’s anticorruption policy. Little is known about the perspectives from the Jamaican business community on this concept. The purpose of this study was to discover and understand perspectives from the Jamaican business community on this concept. A framework included in this study is the principal-agent theory, which provides an understanding of the essence and relevance of perspectives from the Jamaican business community. Phenomenological research was used to gain a deep understanding of these perspectives. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 5 business owners and a focus group comprising of 6 business owners. The data were analyzed thematically. Two perspectives were that an independent anticorruption agency with both investigative and prosecutorial powers in Jamaica could result in an improvement in some social benefits for its people, but the agency itself could experience challenges. Participants also thought that a collaboration among societal actors in Jamaica could bring increased success in terms of corruption control. An implication for positive social change is that societal actors in Jamaica can use collaboration to achieve effective public policies for Jamaica.Corruption is a kind of behavior that undermines good governance. Current research has suggested that Jamaica’s present anticorruption policy is ineffective, and needs strengthening. A civic organization in Jamaica has advocated for an independent anticorruption agency, with both investigative and prosecutorial powers to strengthen Jamaica’s anticorruption policy. Little is known about the perspectives from the Jamaican business community on this concept. The purpose of this study was to discover and understand perspectives from the Jamaican business community on this concept. A framework included in this study is the principal-agent theory, which provides an understanding of the essence and relevance of perspectives from the Jamaican business community. Phenomenological research was used to gain a deep understanding of these perspectives. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 5 business owners and a focus group comprising of 6 business owners. The data were analyzed thematically. Two perspectives were that an independent anticorruption agency with both investigative and prosecutorial powers in Jamaica could result in an improvement in some social benefits for its people, but the agency itself could experience challenges. Participants also thought that a collaboration among societal actors in Jamaica could bring increased success in terms of corruption control. An implication for positive social change is that societal actors in Jamaica can use collaboration to achieve effective public policies for Jamaica. Strengthening Jamaica’s Anticorruption Policy With an Independent Anticorruption Agency by Curt A. Brown MS, University College of the Caribbean/Commonwealth of Learning, 2013 BS, University College of the Caribbean, 2010 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Policy and Administration Walden University May 2018 Dedication This research work is dedicated to the people of Jamaica, especially those who have an interest in the development of that country. There are various groups in Jamaica who continuously advocate for effective policies that will lead to a better life for everyone who either lives or intends to live in that country. The current vision for Jamaica is to become a place that people want to live, work, raise families, and do business. Consequently, it is hoped that this research work will contribute to fulfilling this vision. Acknowledgments I must first thank our Lord for enabling me to complete this research. Next, I must express gratitude to my family members for their understanding and support during my entire dissertation journey. Third, I wish to express gratitude to all faculty members and other personnel at Walden University who have provided guidance in relation to this dissertation.. Walden University has valuable resources, which contributed to my ability to complete this research project. Special thanks to my dissertation committee members for their decision to serve as reviewers for my dissertation work. Finally, thanks to my friends and coworkers who offered support as well as words of encouragement and advice during my dissertation journey.

Strengthening Jamaica's Anticorruption Policy with an Independent Agency

Objective Introduction: All social life spheres in Ukraine are influenced by corruption. Ukrainian citizens were inquired in order to determine corruption rate in various social spheres. It was conditioned by reforming criminal justice and administrative management, which is directed, particularly, for liquidation of corruption in the state. Special emphasize is stressed on corruption rate in the medical sphere. The aim of the article is to determine: 1) population's attitude towards to corruption, in particular, in the medical sphere; 2) the most corruptive social spheres; 3) efficiency of anti-corruption measures; 4) readiness of population to participate into struggle with corruption. Patients and methods Materials and methods: The study is grounded on dialectical, comparative, analytic, synthetic, sociological (special-purpose inquiry form, interview), statistic and comprehensive research methods. The study group consisted of 1 120 citizens and 513 medical and pharmaceutical professionals of Ukraine. Questions were related to: 1) citizens' contact with corruption; 2) corruption expansion rate in state authorities, self-governing authorities, in various infrastructure spheres, particularly, in healthcare; 3) awareness about struggle with corruption in the state and in the region and determination of citizens' readiness to cope with corruption. Results Results: Corruption contact level of citizens remains steadily high. Corruption in the medical sphere is the most widespread: during the previous year before the inquire 63% respondents were involved into corruptive schemes. Corruption in the medical sphere can be subdivided in the following levels: from patient to doctor; inside the hospital - from a healthcare institution employee to the executive hospital staff; on state level concerning state procurements of medications. A bribe to health care professionals was given for: receipt of a sick leave certificate and various references (for example, about unfitness for military service, fitness for driving a car or fulfillment of particular works); high-quality conduct of an operation, medical servicing rendering; writing out a "necessary" prescription; approval or hiding of any bodily injuries; falsification of a true cause of death. All health care professionals have come across different corruptive practices, among which the following payments are widespread: for employment in a hospital, license for private medical practice or establishment of private clinics, "avoidance" of checks of healthcare institutions' activity. The largest bribes are given state officials for participation in tenders for medical drugs supply by pharmaceutical companies. All health care professionals have come across different corruptive practices, among which the following payments are widespread: for employment in a hospital, license for private medical practice or establishment of private clinics, "avoidance" of checks of healthcare institutions' activity. Conclusion Conclusion: Corruption on the sphere of medical practice is complex phenomenon. The conducted poll made it possible to structure the corruption problem, to see its various levels and levels. In respondents' opinion, a scrupulous information campaign is a positive tendency: 45% consider this is a guarantee of anticorruption. Nevertheless, only 5% respondents assume personal notification of anticorruption bodies about receipt of a bribe by medical staff.

/pdf/corruption-in-medical-sphere-of-ukraine-current-situation-l1qkb3hwvf.pdf

Corruption in medical sphere of Ukraine: current situation and ways of prevention.

 The article reviews issues of corruption and political crisis in Ukraine in the context of international organisations reports that estimate corruption levels and entrepreneurial climate worldwide The article examines countries of the European Union and member states of the Customs Union, asseses the political crisis in Ukraine Keywords: corruption, Ukraine, politics, member states of the European Union, member states of the Customs Union, legislation, crisis With its tentacles сorruption embraced all spheres of public administration in Ukraine, affected all branches of Ukrainian national authorities, and constituted a principal source of political crisis in the county We can only suppose how Ukrainian society would have responded the decision to stop Euro-integration and redirect the development vector towards the Customs Union , granted the state had been strictly observing the constitutional law, freedoms and guarantees What would have happened, if the same change occurred under condition that independent courts were functioning normally, the state were performing effective political housecleaning (instead of just making show), carrying out anti-corruption foreign and domestic policy and providing for a favourable entrepreneurial environment?! Indeed, can the states held together by bonds of customs agreements boast of having healthy, transparent economics or of being «corruption free»? We have reasons to believe that Ukraine’s refusal to sign an agreement about association with the European Union was a mere pretext! We drew this conclusion on the basis of analysing the situation in Ukraine after 2010, ie after Yanukovich came to power For this purpose we used analytic and statistical data received in Ukraine and in other countries We studied reports of international organisations that give appraisals of corruption levels, anti-corruption policies, and conditions for developing entrepreneurial business for countries all over the world For comparative examination there were chosen states and republics that are member

Corruption and political crisis in Ukraine

Widely adopted motion forecasting datasets substitute the observed sensory inputs with higher-level abstractions such as 3D boxes and polylines. These sparse shapes are inferred through annotating the original scenes with perception systems' predictions. Such intermediate representations tie the quality of the motion forecasting models to the performance of computer vision models. Moreover, the human-designed explicit interfaces between perception and motion forecasting typically pass only a subset of the semantic information present in the original sensory input. To study the effect of these modular approaches, design new paradigms that mitigate these limitations, and accelerate the development of end-to-end motion forecasting models, we augment the Waymo Open Motion Dataset (WOMD) with large-scale, high-quality, diverse LiDAR data for the motion forecasting task. The new augmented dataset WOMD-LiDAR consists of over 100,000 scenes that each spans 20 seconds, consisting of well-synchronized and calibrated high quality LiDAR point clouds captured across a range of urban and suburban geographies (https://waymo.com/open/data/motion/). Compared to Waymo Open Dataset (WOD), WOMD-LiDAR dataset contains 100x more scenes. Furthermore, we integrate the LiDAR data into the motion forecasting model training and provide a strong baseline. Experiments show that the LiDAR data brings improvement in the motion forecasting task. We hope that WOMD-LiDAR will provide new opportunities for boosting end-to-end motion forecasting models.

Ivan Mikhailovich Bogun

Papers

Corruption and political crisis in Ukraine

WOMD-LiDAR: Raw Sensor Dataset Benchmark for Motion Forecasting