EDITORIAL- Flies

Flies have descended on several areas in the town of Asturias. The immediate suspicion is that the flies were attracted by the presence of several poultry farms in the area. A proper investigation, however, has yet to be conducted. But officials say that if the poultry farms are found to be the real culprits, they would not hesitate to recommend their closure.

Before it gets to that point, however, it might do well for the investigators to determine why the poultry farms were allowed to operate there in the first place. Clearly, before any enterprise of whatever nature is allowed to operate in a given place, the officials of that place are supposed to determine any possible impact such an enterprise may have on the community it seeks to operate in.

In this country, there is no shortage of requirements to comply with before permits to operate are given. In fact, it is this surfeit of requirements that has made the country notorious as one of the most difficult places on earth to do business in. And then, for those intrepid souls who are willing to dare the winds just to do business here, there are also the practices that cost an arm to breeze through the requirements, if not get around them completely.

We are not suggesting that shortcuts have been made enroute to the operation of the suspected culprits in this controversy over flies. But shouldn't the question been asked at the outset by those in charge as to whether operating poultry farms might not precisely attract flies? And if even that possibility existed at the outset, shouldn't have those concerned be a little less enthusiastic about granting the poultry farms any permits allowing them to operate?

There is for instance a health permit and an environment permit that need to be acquired. Weren't questions pertaining to health and the environment ever asked before any go-signal was given? This should be the direction taken in any investigation made into the controversy so that not only the affected town can be guided on what to do in similar instances but other places as well.

But that should not be the end of the story. It is common knowledge, and in fact common practice, that violations of any permits that may have been given can easily be remedied by the payment of fines. This is the worst form of ensuring the accountability of violators because there is no accountability in it at all. Paying fines does not in any way hold to account anyone in the way accountability is supposed to be understood.

Accountability, in the strictest sense, seeks to ensure that an error or an offense is not committed again. There is a sense of commitment toward protection of larger interests such as that of the public. If accountability is reduced to a simple matter of paying fines, then we have just made the world a very dangerous place to live in.

On the other hand, accountability loses its relevance if required after the fact, when something wrong or undesirable has already happened or been committed. Accountability should be demanded at the outset. Accountability should define the parameters within which an undertaking that is allowed to proceed and operate should in fact operate. And when it breaches those parameters, the offense should not be cured by a mere fine.