Guyana perceived as second most corrupt country in Region

Sep 25, 2008 News

“Stemming corruption requires strong oversight through parliaments, law enforcement, independent media and a vibrant civil society…Out of control corruption has horrendous consequences for ordinary people and for justice and equality in societies more broadly”

Guyana has been identified as the second most corrupt country in this region, according to the 2008 Transparency International Report Corruption Perception Index. The country ranked 126 out of 180 countries, with Haiti ranking lower at 177.

The index, released annually since 1995, looks at public sector corruption based on expert assessments and opinion surveys, helping to highlight the propensity of domestic corruption and its damaging influence.

Explaining the significance of the CPI, a Transparency International Executive Director J C Weliamuna said that the Index ranks countries in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians.

It measures each country’s level of corruption and places it on a scale from 0 to 10, where 10 stands for ‘highly clean’ and 0 stands for ‘highly corrupt.’ Guyana ranks 2.6 out of the possible 10.

The CPI focuses on corruption in the public sector and defines corruption as the abuse of public office for private gain.

In conducting the surveys used to compile the Index, questions that relate to misuse of public power for private benefit are asked. These include bribery of public officials, kickbacks in public procurement and embezzlement of public funds.

Questions that probe the strength of anti-corruption policies are also included in the assessment while the CPI 2008 has also drawn on 13 different polls and surveys from 11 independent institutions.

“Stemming corruption requires strong oversight through parliaments, law enforcement, independent media and a vibrant civil society,” says Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International in a media release issued in Berlin, Germany.

She added also that out of control corruption has horrendous consequences for ordinary people and for justice and equality in societies more broadly.

When the 2007 report on Guyana was released, the country was ranked at 124 out of 180 countries. President Bharrat Jagdeo immediately expressed concerns about the studies and reports on corruption that utilize perception indicators to arrive at conclusions.

“I don’t have a problem with those factual, specific types of protests and investigations because if there is a case of corruption and it is made known, it could be investigated and the results made known to the public…My problem, though, is when people come in (to Guyana) and make blanket statements and have a corruption perception index…If I were to manage this country on perception, people would say it is bad governance,” said Jagdeo.

During budget debates in the National Assembly, the Opposition have consistently pointed to the fact that there was a lack of transparency and high levels of perceived corruption that saw $$B disappearing into the pockets of politicians (on the government side of the House).

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Guyana perceived as second most corrupt country in Region

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