WORRYING TREND

by RAY FLEMING
INDIFFERENCE to “conflict of interest” is one the most worrying things in contemporary politics.
When ministers take decisions which blur the edges between their political responsibilities and their personal interests it is time for ordinary citizens to sit up and take notice. The increasing tendency of husbands and wives to be in jobs where interests overlap is another concern.
Then there is the practice of senior civil servants setting up cushy retirement appointments with companies and organisations they have dealt with as officials. There is supposed to be a “cooling off” period but often it is less than a year, a period that obviously does not sufficiently separate the retiring official from applying his background knowledge and contacts in the interests of his new masters. However, British practice has a long way still to decline compared to what can happen in Germany.
POLITICAL SUICIDE
It has now been established that Gerhard Schroder was still in charge of the German government when it guaranteed financing of more than one billion dollars for a pipeline deal with the Russian energy giant Gazprom and that he then went to work for Gazprom immediately after leaving office. There's more. Herr Schroder has taken legal action to prevent the leader of the Free Democrats party from criticising him in public over the Gazprom deal, which he denies. It will be recalled that Herr Schroder's decision to call an election, which he lost, one year earlier than necessary was called political suicide. Is that what he wanted?