We’re a soft touch

THE news that hospital staff are being investigated over allegations of inappropriate procurement practices and how those practices might have been influenced by suppliers to our health services again highlights our less than gung-ho attitude to white-collar crime.

In recent years we have seen myriad examples of behaviour that seems as if it should at least warrant a sanction by professional bodies or, dare it be said, the courts.

Not one banker has heard a jail cell door closing behind them, not one auditor who signed off on Alice in Wonderland accounts has been debarred, and solicitors who facilitated all kinds of chicanery are still harrumphing their way around our legal system.

None of these complaints are new but it is hard not to think that until we have the civic spirit and determination needed to confront these abuses, and punish them in a meaningful way, that the next banking crisis is no more than a nod and a wink away. Why is it we are such a soft touch for white- collar criminals? Where’s our sense of outrage?