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Watchdog group says…Transparency must be priority for new govt.
– Urges more participation from citizenry
Whether the new APNU+AFC coalition government makes decisions that are pleasing to the citizenry or not,
TIGI President,
Calvin Bernard
it is paramount that a level of transparency exists, said new President of the Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. (TIGI), Calvin Bernard.
In fact, he said, transparency and participation at the level of the citizenry would go a long way in curbing corruption.
During a recent interview with this newspaper, Bernard stated that with a new government in place, Guyanese are eagerly awaiting any information available on the country’s administration. He said, too, that the populace is expecting to see the materialization of campaign promises.
Though he emphasised that it was important that politicians keep their promises, Bernard noted that the shifting away from some promises was “almost natural”.
“However”, he said, “If any shifting occurs the public should be made aware of it rather than having to seek it out.
“It’s almost natural that we see some shifting away from some of the promises when they actually get into office; some of it is understandable and some of it is not, but it is not for the people to sift through the rubble and figure out which ones are understandable and which aren’t.
“It’s really up to the political parties to step up and make sure people understand,” Bernard said.
He continued, “They should say, ‘We said that in 100 days we will do this and we said this person will do X but at this point in time, this is what we’re considering and this is where we’ve shifted to and this is why’. That way it’s clear to ascertain what is really going on.”
Bernard said that a lot of anxieties had surrounded the new names given to ministries under the new coalition government. He opined that the unease had surfaced because no one had really expected that the names of the Ministries would be changed. He said too that when these changes occurred, there had been almost no explanation to accompany them.
“You were hearing somebody gets announced as minister of some ministry that never existed before and people are questioning what these ministries are and what they do,” he said.
He added, “You get that sort of thing coming out and it’s really poor management of the situation. It ought to have been the case that, in advance to ministers and ministries being publicized, people should have had the understanding of where the government is going and why it’s going there.”
He added that in an even better world, Guyanese would have had some say in the decision making process.
“People should be able not only to understand why decisions are being taken but also being able to influence those decisions,” he said.
He said that participation in decision making would guarantee that the opinions of persons such as experts or the regular citizen would be weighed or considered and would in turn create ownership.
According to Bernard, ownership allowed persons to try their hardest to safeguard decisions, which would provide a mechanism for curbing corruption. For example, he said, if community work is to be executed and citizens participate in the decision making process, then they would feel personally responsible to ensure that what had been agreed upon is executed.
“If I personally disagree with one of the things that you decide that you’re going to do, then I automatically disown what you’re going to do, and I don’t feel like I have any obligation to ensure that the man coming to build the road does it because I don’t agree with it or I can’t own that particular project…The concept of ownership is a critical thing because it benefits us all and the functioning of government,” he said.
He further said that ownership would reduce the pressure on central administration and government entities to come and police to ensure things are going correctly, because “people on the ground have a vested interest because now it’s not a government project, it’s our project.”
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