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More citizens should help fight corruption – TIGI Head

May 09, 2012 News

 

 

More citizens should speak on issues of transparency, says Gino Persaud, the new president of a local anti-corruption watchdog set up to empower citizens to demand a society where public and private officials in positions of trust are held accountable.
Persaud heads the two-year-old Transparency Institute of Guyana Incorporated (TIGI) and he sees his role ahead as a tough one.
“TIGI invites all citizens concerned about transparency, accountability and anti-corruption in Guyana to come on board by joining and helping the organisation to achieve its objectives,” Persaud stated.
Among the Institute’s goals are to educate and raise awareness of the many faces of corruption, its causes and consequences on national development and to promote the effective and transparent functioning of public and private sector institutions.
In addition, the Institute aims to lobby for and actively engage stakeholders in the formulation of policies and the enactment of legislation to promote transparency and eradicate corruption.
Persaud said he would like to see more citizens come on board to support TIGI in its work and by speaking out publicly on issues on transparency.
Mr. Persaud expressed the hope that the membership of TIGI would continue to increase so that its members could meet and discuss important issues.
TIGI is an affiliate and national contact of Transparency International, the world’s leading anti-corruption organization.
In one of its postings, the Institute stated that corruption is clearly a priority concern for Guyanese.
The 2010 Latin American Public Opinion Poll (LAPOP) conducted by Vanderbilt University in 26 countries, found that 78.5% of the Guyanese surveyed perceived corruption to be high, thereby placing the country in the upper tier along with Jamaica and Peru.
Most of the discussion on corruption in Guyana has centred on the actions of public officials and public institutions, for example, the inexplicable wealth of government employees, the questionable awarding of contracts etc.
In these scenarios, the Institute stated, the citizen does not participate, the act happens behind closed doors, involves multi-million-dollar sums and the powerful members of our society.
One of the most common forms of corruption to which most people have been directly involved is petty bribery. Bribery appears to be an act of corruption to which Guyanese are more tolerant.
In the same LAPOP study, 32.3% of Guyanese responded positively to the statement, “Given the way things are, sometimes paying a bribe is justified”. This response placed Guyana as the highest of any other country in Latin America and the Caribbean where the population is amenable to bribery.
In a published article on bribery, the Institute asked what citizens themselves are doing to eradicate corruption in Guyana.
The Institute stated that although there is little research done on how big the problem is in Guyana, these seemingly innocuous acts of petty bribery further strengthen the creation of a culture of corruption.
It said that every time a citizen agrees to pay a bribe or an official accepts one – it directly undermines Guyana’s development and contributes to the “corrupt society” that everyone despises.
“Standing on the other side of a corrupt official is you, the citizen, who tolerates corruption by handing over their money albeit grudgingly.
“A decision to pay a bribe, unless under force or duress, is an endorsement of a corrupt system,” the Institute stated.
TIGI is located in the Secretariat of the Private Sector Commission in Waterloo Street, Georgetown. The telephone number is 231-9586 between the hours of 09:00 and 12:00 and the email address is [email protected].

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