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Ramotar admits collusion among contractors, engineers
… debunks ‘corruption’ allegations as “great exaggeration”
Some political circles have in recent days labeled the prolonged Linden fallout a diversionary tactic to shy away from the issue of pervasive corruption at entities such as the National Communications Network and the National Industrial Commercial and Investments Limited among others.
President Donald Ramotar
Head of State, Donald Ramotar, has weighed in on the corruption debate. “I think a lot of it in our country has to do with great exaggeration on the part of political opposition but that does not mean that corruption does not exist in our society.”
Ramotar was at the time appearing on state television where he did admit that “there is some collusion between contractors and engineers.”
He says that “these are the things we are fighting against.”
There have been allegations over the years that the engineers who prepare the estimates for various multi-million dollar government projects would deliberately, through collusion with specific contractors, inflate contract sums.
This would result in contracts being approved and for which heavy kickbacks were being paid.
Only this past weekend, one such contractor has gone on record alleging high levels of corruption.
According to Ramotar, ever since the Peoples Progressive Party/Civic took office in 1992, the party has been putting systems in place to stem corruption.
He points to the public tendering system and bidding process utilized by the administration.
Ramotar reminded also of the recent conference organized by the Ministry of Finance where he had expanded on the need for a greater policing of the procurement system.
“They must be more accountable for their actions,” says Ramotar as he spoke to dealing with ‘corrupt contractors and engineers.”
The President insisted that “our system is a very good system,” but concedes that there is “room for improvement.”
Guyana has for several years rated abysmally on international perception indexes on corruption.
The most recent rating that has been attributed to Guyana falls under Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
From being ranked 116 the previous year out of a total of 178 countries assessed, Guyana has now sunk to 134.
Only recently also, Gabriel ‘GHK’ Lall, a re-migrant released a publication titled ‘Guyana: A National Cesspool of Greed, Duplicity & Corruption (A Remigrant’s Story)’
Lall says that what he has written on corruption in Guyana is nothing new and is well known to all Guyanese.
“It is not a story about one crooked public official, or one sleazy borrower, or one counterfeit contractor, or one traitorous family member. Rather, it is the accumulated, searing revelations highlighted from the journey of one man in the untamed jungles of Guyana,” the Preface informs.
It went further. “Greed and duplicity and corruption in Guyana cut across race – I have had terrible experiences with Indian, Black, Dougla and Amerindian folks: those I had the misfortune to deal with manifested certain common characteristics: a serious lack of scruples, a sense of entitlement and an unwillingness to travel the hard, grueling road of sacrifice.”
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