How corruption keeps us poor and vulnerable

Dec 09, 2012 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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Transparency International in its latest report ranked Guyana at 133 out of 176 countries surveyed. This is within the lowest range out of all the countries surveyed and for the English-speaking Caribbean Region, Guyana was ranked the lowest, scoring a mere 28 points out of a total 100. If this was the report card of a student, the parents would have been tremendously perturbed and immediate remedial action would have been initiated.
Such low ranking by Guyana seems to have become the norm, with apparently little effort on the part of the government to improve and move up the rating ladder.
Corruption is a scourge that eats away at the very fabric of society. It is like a nasty mould that takes over, tarnishes and destroys everything it comes into contact with.
The Alliance For Change does not need to emphasise here how corruption and the perception of corruption have caused the deterioration of public confidence in the Guyana Police Force, suffice to say that even if a good, decent, God-fearing man or woman was to join the Force, from the moment they don the uniform, they will be perceived as corrupt. Such is the stigma that is attached to the Force.
This lack of public confidence in the Force obviously does not aid in crime fighting or instil in citizens a sense of security. The end result of this is many-fold – it becomes harder to solve even the simplest of crime when eyewitnesses are hesitant to come forward. Citizens may go to extreme and oftentimes illegal measures to protect themselves and their property, and this of course could have a ricochet effect on crime.
We can go on at length on the negative impact of a corrupt police force, but let us turn our attention to what are the likely impacts of other corrupt public officials on the wellbeing of citizens.
The first and most important point that must be made is that money spent by government is money that belongs to the people. Every dollar spent by government, whether it comes from taxes, loans or grants, is money that belongs to the people of Guyana. The money belongs to the people, and the government are like investors, whose responsibility it is to decide how best the money should be utilised. The National Assembly, especially the opposition, is charged to provide the necessary scrutiny to ensure that the people’s money is not squandered or stolen.
Citizens of this country must understand that it is their money that the government is spending and when they understand this then they will begin to demand proper accounting for their money. This is what happens in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and in many Caribbean countries, forcing the governments in those nations to be transparent and accountable and resulting in a better quality of life for their citizens.
Many persons have questioned why the AFC is so harsh on corruption and why the Party has been digging into the award of contracts in such a relentless manner. The answer is simple; stamping out corruption means improving the quality of life for all Guyanese especially the poor and vulnerable.
Every $1 million or $10 million siphoned off into a private bank account through some corrupt means, is in effect removing a critical service for mostly poor people. The millions that are skimmed off by corrupt officials and their friends are the very millions that should have been spent to buy furniture for the school your child attends, or for an ambulance that would have taken the accident victim to the hospital which would have saved their life, or it was money that could have been spent to properly equip the hospital so the woman may not have died while giving birth.
Corruption also means that taxes, including VAT, will never be reduced, as enough tax dollars must be collected not only to cover the cost of those services which a government ought to provide, but, also for ‘kickbacks’ and bribes to corrupt officials.
So, the next time your child complains of not having a proper bench to sit on in school or you are forced to wait a whole day at the emergency section because there is a shortage of doctors, or you are told that your loved one died because the hospital could not provide the care needed, or even when you have to spend money to fix your car because of the damage caused by potholes in the road, remember that the money that was to be spent to remedy these situations and avoid the mishaps and catastrophes, was siphoned off by a corrupt public official. The next time you question why you have to pay so much in VAT or why so much is taken out of your salary as taxes, remember some of that money is going to line the pockets of corrupt officials!

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