The recent report from Washington that the Justice Department is investigating whether former Interior Secretary Gale Norton illegally used her position to benefit a company that later hired her should represent a timely reminder to all those in official positions of influence in the Cayman Islands that the Anti-Corruption Law 2008 comes into effect in just a few months on January 1, 2010.

The US investigation’s main focus is whether Ms Norton violated a law that prohibits federal employees from discussing employment with a company if they are involved in dealings with the government that could benefit the firm.

Investigators are also trying to determine if Ms Norton broke a broader federal “denial of honest services” law, which says a government official can be prosecuted for violating the public trust by, for example, steering government business to favoured firms or friends.

This latter potential offence neatly describes what often happens in the Cayman Islands and the number of government contracts that over the years appeared to have been “steered” to favoured firms or friends is too great to list.

In fact, the potential for financial gain often seems to be the principal reason why many people seek appointments to influential boards and authorities.

In every society there are some business-savvy wheeler-dealers who have the ability to survive economically, irrespective of their obvious affiliation to any past government, and based on their ability to court new administrations, becoming party to inside connections and information.

Perhaps it is because of their propensity to remain focused on the business aspects and deal-making of the country - whether it is in real estate, mergers, acquisitions of government consultancy contracts - these players always have a knack for knowing where there is profit to be made because of their insider trading abilities.

In many cases these wheeler-dealers, because of family and previous business connections, have been able to make enormous profits and commissions on sales because they always seem to have knowledge of where Government and, in some cases, private sector leaders will require property and other services.

While there is in many cases no ‘hard copy’ proof of corruption involving government officials - because many of these deals are consummated with the knowing nods of high officials – we look forward to the enforcement of higher standards and accountability.

Over the years there have been a number of property acquisitions by government that may have enriched some within a cartel of people who always seem to be in the right place at the right time to make huge profits.

When it comes into effect at the beginning of next year, the Anti-Corruption Law will make it an offence for Members of the Legislative Assembly or civil servants to accept loans, rewards or other financial advantage for anything they do or fail to do in their official capacity.

If convicted, an offender could be sent to prison for up to14 years, which makes one wonder how many of our past and present officials would now be enjoying Her Majesty’s hospitality if the law had been in place earlier.

The new law will also make bribery of foreign public officials a crime and there should by now have been a rapid reassessment of existing relationships by some local financial service providers, who may be enabling foreign officials to skim funds from their respective national treasuries by means of companies and other financial vehicles established in the Cayman Islands.

Where foreign public officials, from heads of state on down, derive a financial advantage from their official capacity, facilitated by the façade of a company set up in the Cayman Islands, it seems to us that anyone acting as a director or trustee in such an arrangement is at risk of prosecution under the new law.

Many of the events of the last year or so have not exactly reflected favourably on the Cayman Islands in terms of integrity in official positions, apparently with a considerable degree of apathy on the part of the general public.

As we have pointed out before, the times are indeed “a-changing” and we hope that the new law will lead to a new, “cleaner” environment in a local as well as foreign context, especially at a time when the Cayman Islands is already the subject of intense global focus in terms of our cooperation and compliance with the latest international standards of transparency.