BARBADIAN INNOVATOR Alan Emtage yesterday called for corruption to be stamped out, saying it was one of three major impediments to innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.
“I am saying to you do not accept that as a way of life, of doing business. Corruption is corrosive to a society. Once it takes hold it is almost impossible to get rid of it because it infects, not only our relationship with the Government and companies, [but] it affects your relationship with one another,” he told a forum of budding entrepreneurs.
“Fraud and lying and lack of merit becomes part of the culture. Do not accept it, do not participate in it, speak out when you see it.”
Emtage, the chief technical officer at Mediapolis, an operation based in New York, and the developer of the world’s first Internet search engine, noted that persistent rumours of corruption continued to hang over both the private and public sectors.
He said he received a wake-up call when a customs officer operating at the Bridgetown Port demanded a bribe from him several years ago, with little fear of the consequences.
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