Case Study Analysis For Vanuatu’s Broken Dreams: Ethical And Governing Issues

Ethical and governing issues presented in Vanuatu’s Broken Dreams video

Discuss about the Case Study Analysis for Vanuatus Broken Dreams.

The government of Vanuatu is corrupt, involved in the theft of money that is supposed to be used in improving the life of the community and misappropriation of funds. The ferry services in Vanuatu are extremely expensive and unreliable. The local people are exploited by carrying heavy loads such as cement. This is human labor that benefits only the politicians and the civil servants in the government. The politicians in Vanuatu are maximizing the opportunity of money that is brought by tourists for their benefit (Mellor and Jabes, p. 112). Even the prime minister points out that corruption has become endemic since everyone including the civil servants is corrupt. Theft of cash brought in by the tourist is public knowledge to the local community. However, the people of Vanuatu are scared to say who has the money, where the money is or what the money is being used for. Finding out how much money has been squandered and stolen is hard for the investigators since there are no financial records or explanations from the people. It is evident that islanders are scared of pointing fingers at the politicians and civil servants.

There is also an unequal distribution of resources and services. Improved facilities such as toilets have been set up on the island. Unfortunately, these facilities are off-limits for the local community; only tourists have access to the toilets that have a septic system and running water. The government of Vanuatu lacks an integrated system to ensure development that will lead to economic and social improvement of the people of Vanuatu (Friel et al., p. 251). The people in Vanuatu keep wondering where the thousands of dollars that come in as a result of tourists coming to the port goes.

Misappropriation of development funds is an issue that has been addressed by the European Union in May 2017 as stated by the Pacific island report. The local communities hoped for good health, electricity, good water system and proper sanitation in the rural areas due to the thousands of dollars that were flowing into the island. However, the money is not properly used, and the lives of the people of Vanuatu is barely changed (Lambach, p. 408).

Tourism governance involves; making policies, planning and regulating the delivery and use of services. Tourism policies ensure that the tourism sector is efficient and delivers benefits to the community, sets an administrative framework for tourism, makes sure the tourism sector works properly and remains competitive and makes sure there is interaction with other policies such as the environment or transport policies. The government represents the whole system, the right processes and also controls the management both internally and externally ensuring that the interests of all the stakeholders are protected. The governance of Vanuatu does not have proper tourism policies. The people in the local communities are just farmers with no experience of dealing with cash flow. Politicians and civil servants have therefore taken advantage of the people’s ignorance for their benefit.  For instance, the financial reports of 2004 to 2012 have never been published or documented (Bramwell and Lane, p. 415). This is a clear cover-up of corruption and theft of government funds. Unaccountability due to lack of records of the use of finances encourages the embezzlement of funds.

Corruption and misappropriation of funds by the government

Tourism planning ensures that the society, the environment, and the economy are beneficiaries of the tourism sector. The planning involves maximizing the benefits while the costs are minimized to ensure social and economic development by regulating the system. Vanuatu’s hope for better living where improved facilities and services are accessible remains a dream. The government does not have a proper tourism planning strategy. The money that could be used to promote the development of basic water systems, electrification and infrastructure is stolen (Roe et al., p. 14) by the people in the government.

The P&O cruises did not act ethically in this case. Tourism is one of the sectors that contribute to fast regional and economic development of any country because it contributes greatly to national income. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the local communities of Vanuatu because the P&O cruises do not bring sustainable tourism. Sustainability means permanence, and therefore tourism that is sustainable ensures minimum social, ecological and cultural impacts while maximizing the use of resources.  There is no improvement of the life of the people due to the arrival of the cruise liners. In fact, improved facilities such as toilets are constructed just for the tourists. Even the basic water system that is the only symbol of development is used to supply water for toilets that are used by tourists only. When they leave the island of Vanuatu, these toilets are locked until the next season the tourists are on the island.

The local government is also responsible for ensuring sustainable tourism. The government has the expertise of dealing with cash inflow and the ability to set up projects that benefit the whole nation. It will, therefore, ensure equal distribution of resources and social amenities to all the communities. Setting up of improved and accessible facilities (Ritchie, p 290) for the people of Vanuatu across the communities should be a priority for the government.

The government should ensure transparency in the expenditure of funds and disbursement of government property. This transparency should involve proper and clear documentation of financial reports every year. This will help the government and citizens in identifying corrupt practices in all the sectors and hence national accountability of the finances in the country. Appropriate punishment should be administered to individuals and corporates that engage in corruption and misuse of government property. Publishing financial reports will provide clear explanations and answers to the people on how the money is spent and ensure accountability on the government.

Unequal distribution of resources and services benefitting only politicians and civil servants

The government should regulate prices of commodities and services to ensure that they are affordable and accessible to the local communities. This will improve the economy and hence the lives of the people. The people are poor and cannot afford expensive items such as cooking gas. The policies of the local bank are also too hard for them to bank their cash.

The local community also has a role in dealing with corruption and theft of money acquired from tourism. The knowledge they have about who steals the money and where the money is being used should be exposed without fear. The people of Vanuatu are scared of mentioning the names of the people who are responsible for the corrupt practices. However, they have begun fighting back against corruption by taking the future into their own hands. This is an important step as the people have the power to elect leaders, who are not corrupt (Shkabatur, p 180) and have the interests of the people at heart.

The Australian government provides a huge amount of aid to Vanuatu. The interest of the government of Australia is to promote economic growth and reduce poverty on the island. The Australian government aid program could work towards stabilizing the economy of the island since for most Australians; Vanuatu is a place for their holidays. However, Vanuatu is a developing country and implementation of a successful development goal can face a lot of challenges. The Australian government could, therefore, work closely with the government of Vanuatu towards a development goal. The accountability of Vanuatu’s government would involve proper documentation of financial reports especially those that come as aid from Australia. This assessment of the effectiveness of the process will help reduce corrupt practices and theft of money in Vanuatu (Wainwright, pp. 490). There should also be constant evaluation of the performance and progress of the program.

The government of Vanuatu could have helped resolve issues and heal their land. It is sad to point out that the leadership of Vanuatu is wanting since the levels of corruption are high within the government. However, individuals within the government who could even point out that corruption has become endemic have a role to fight for the country and the rights of the people. They could pass policies that could ensure resources are accessible to the people. For instance, banking policies that are favorable to the people will improve the economy significantly. The government could also build up trust with the people and other governments that provide aid to the country.

The people of Vanuatu should elect corrupt free leaders in the future. Human poverty, poor sanitation, and poor public health are among the issues that affect the local communities directly. This could change in the future since the people have the power to choose leaders who have the interests of the people at heart during the next elections.

Establishment of international interventions is also crucial. Corruption has a cross-border dimension in an economy that is globalized. A legal framework for dealing with corruption internationally is therefore important. 

Transparency of the expenses by the government and access to information to everybody will help in mitigating corruption and theft of money. The allocation and use of public facilities and services will be public knowledge to all the citizens thus restoring their trust in the government. A good relationship between the government and the citizens will be healthy for economic growth.

References

Bramwell, B. and Lane, B., 2011. Critical research on the governance of tourism and sustainability. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 19(4-5), pp.411-421. 

Friel, S., Chiang, T.L., Cho, Y., Guo, Y., Hashimoto, H., Jayasinghe, S., Loring, B., Matheson, D., Nguyen, H.T. and Rao, M., 2011. freedom to lead a life we have reason to value? A spotlight on health inequity in the Asia Pacific region. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 23(2), pp.246-263. 

Lambach, D., 2006. Security, development and the Australian security discourse about failed states. Australian Journal of Political Science, 41(3), pp.407-418. 

Mellor, T. and Jabes, J., 2004. Governance in the Pacific: Focus for Action: 2005-2009 (Pacific studies series). 

Ritchie, J.B. and Crouch, G.I., 2003. The competitive destination: A sustainable tourism perspective. Cabi. 

Roe, D., Ashley, C., Page, S. and Meyer, D., 2004. Tourism and the poor analysing and interpreting tourism statistics from a poverty perspective. 

Shkabatur, J., 2012. Transparency with (out) accountability: Open government in the United States. 

Wainwright, E., 2003. Responding to state failure—the case of Australia and Solomon Islands. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 57(3), pp.485-498.