[ga] Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Vint and Michael,

The question is as old as time itself, "Who will watch
the watchman?"

Reading through the many remarks posted to
settlement-comments, one can't help but notice the
frequency of the word "corruption"...  

To be candid, it is rather hard for the public to
imagine how any ICANN-retained lawyer worth his salt
could have advised his client to allow VeriSign to
simply walk away from a $200,000,000 contractual R&D
obligation, so words such as "malfeasance" or
"corruption" would immediately come to mind
(especially when mechanisms designed to enhance both
VeriSign and ICANN revenues were included in this
bizarre proposed settlement).

In my view, ICANN has a steward's obligation to ensure
probity in all of its dealings -- as an organization,
it must be thoroughly beyond reproach.  

Yet speaking as a member of the public, I have my
doubts as to whether ICANN does in fact have an
appropriate anti-corruption strategy in place.  Let's
face it, we are dealing with contracts that implicate
hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue... so, the
issue that I am raising is this:  can the ICANN Board
reasonably reassure the community that its provisions
against the possibility of corruption are adequate?

Has the Board set up channels that permit corruption
to be
reported internally?  Has the Board developed
investigative structures able to detect corruption?

I would prefer to think that there is no corruption
among the Staff, and that Staff, with respect to this
proposed settlement, has merely displayed the
stupidity that results from undue insularity -- but in
today's climate, we need to be on our guard against
even the slightest hint of corruption. 

Corruption is never a "victimless" crime; the victim
is usually the general public interest.  Please keep
that thought in your mind as you evaluate the terms of
the proposed settlement.

Best regards,
Danny

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