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This Election is a referendum on corruption

May 04, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
The PPP boasts of economic growth over the last few years.  Well, Guyanese should also know that the statistics quoted include expenditure on all corrupt and busted projects, including the Marriott, spending on the road to Amaila Falls, the overpriced contracts at the Airport, among others.
One of the major reasons for the PPP seeking a return to government has to do with the lucrative mechanism for corruption they have implemented.  This system cannot be implemented anywhere else and generate the same returns for them.  The following are among the variety of measures that might have been used to receive money through bribery and corruption:
1. Upfront direct payments in cash via envelopes and other similar means.  This is not necessarily confined to the office, but can be arranged at virtually any place of convenience.
2. For transactions involving foreign companies and large foreign currency-denominated payments, these may be typically routed through foreign bank accounts initially, with no record of an impact on the balance sheets of the government officials.  These monies build up over time, becoming a slush fund which is used to transact acquisitions of foreign assets, etc, by ministers.
3. Local contractors pay bribes to officials after receiving contracts which are overpriced to accommodate bribe payments. This is the typical ‘kickback’.
4. Beneficial local contractors may grant kick-backs on projects through gifts like ‘assisting’ in construction, purchase of assets from these contractors or other businesses with the beneficial contractors assisting in the acquisition of these assets.
5. Use of state institutions like NICIL to facilitate the purchase of assets at below market value, which can later be disposed at astronomical prices.
6. Corrupt foreign and local contractors directly purchasing or facilitating the purchase of assets by government officials and ministers.
7. Direct cooking of the books of the relevant ministries and state institutions to facilitate fraud and outright theft. This may require cooperation across ministries and agencies.
8. Through prior agreements, contractors deliberately do shoddy work in order to get other contracts to remedy their bungling.  This realizes additional payoffs to government officials through whatever arrangements have been established.
Can anyone follow the money, even with a forced declaration of assets? The answer would be a difficult yes. All local assets would be easily identifiable.  Foreign assets, particularly, foreign bank accounts will require tracking government officials’ travels abroad and correspondence with the banking systems of those countries. Additionally, assistance will be required to track internet activity, since some financial institutions make provisions for establishing accounts over the internet.
So when we see the PPP’s ministers and government officials with unexplained or suspicious assets, things should probably be much clearer now, knowing that there is much more to them than meets the eye.
These also very probably have been among the major issues that have kept the PPP’s attention away from generating investment, job creation and higher paying jobs for Guyanese.   These are among the issues we all will vote on come May 11.  These elections are a referendum on the corruption during the PPP’s terms in government.
Craig Sylvester

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