The buck stops with the President

Jun 28, 2009 Editorial

The 2007 Auditor General’s report on the Public Accounts of Guyana, which has just been released, makes for depressing reading. It is a report filled with accounts of misappropriations, unaccounted disbursements, unauthorised use of the Contingencies Funds, overdrafts and inactive accounts, overpayments, overstocking etc – all from the moneys that we have entrusted to this government to improve the welfare of our nation. Add the billion here and a billion there and pretty soon, we are talking about some real money that either cannot be accounted for or has been pilfered.

So what is going to happen? Judging from what followed the issuance of previous reports that were all in the same vein; most likely the answer will be “Nothing!” And this is more than a crying shame: it is a national disgrace. It is a national disgrace because we as a nation are standing by and allowing the rot not only to continue, but to spread into the very institutions that were designed to keep us as a viable entity. We are contributing to the institutional decay that will bring us all to our knees.
The government and the state can only work through institutions. The government may have all the best intentions in the world but in the end, it is its policies that matter. And those policies do not become public policies unless they are adopted and enforced by a governmental institution.
The Auditor General’s Office was established after excessive past governmental malfeasance concerning the public treasury. It was supposed to implement a new state policy of openness as far as public funds were concerned and its existence is frequently alluded to when the government wants to laud its bona fides in that area.

But of what value is the report of continued ineptitude and possible malfeasance in the public sector if nothing is being done to rectify the cancer? It merely serves to rub salt into the public’s wounds inflicted by their supposed “servants”. So which institution is supposed to enforce the new policy? The buck has to stop somewhere. Taking the kindest possible reading of the situation one could possibly say that the atrocious state of our public finances is the result of ineptitude on the part of those that staff our public institutions. One may also say that this incompetence has been handed down from the past administration. After all, it has been pointed out that, “Congealed preferences run through the blood stream of institutions.”
A more cynical assessment may point to entrenched interests that benefit financially from the three-card monte played with our funds. But whatever be the cause in our estimation, the institution that has responsibility for this (admittedly Herculean) task is the Presidency.

After all, this is an executive presidency and the problem is an executive one. To continue to brush aside the problem or to suggest that it is only an “apparent” problem is to erode not only the institution of government, but the very foundation on which its legitimacy rests – the rule of law.
The premise of the latter institution is very simple, rules are established for the better functioning of society and we are all going to be held accountable to those laws. No one shall be above the workings of the law. The moment that someone breaks the law, there are supposed to be sanctions applied. The moment that someone breaks the law and is allowed to walk away without so much as a slap on the wrist, then all hell will break loose, sooner or later. When some can break the law, then all will break the law.
And this is where we stand in Guyana today. Malfeasance is rife in our land – from the policeman who pockets the bribes for speeding violations, to the engineer that do not properly assess works in progress as pointed out by the Auditor General. The President must act now.

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