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Corruption steals from the poor
DEAR EDITOR,
“Corruption steals from the poor. It steals the promise of a brighter future.” –Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group.
According to research conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) there seem to be a trend, that the countries which comprise the majority of the world, are considered corrupt. This assumption is supported by the following view: “corruption aggravates inequality and injustice, and undermines stability, especially in the world’s most vulnerable regions.” – Yury Fedotov, Executive Director, UNODC.
Another study concludes that aggressive corruption by supercilious government officials aggravates the vices of a society – as manifested by rampant drug use and abuse, alcoholism, mental health crises; quality of life crimes and communal violence. Several experts have opined, that far too often, Guyana for a small country, contributes statistics that are much higher than the international average. The very fact that Guyana has graduated from a major transit country for drugs, to a user country, gives credence to that assumption.
While the news government means well, it is now tasked with building the infrastructure for good governance, accountability and transparency from the ground up. In retrospect, until now, the government has failed to educate the population as to the processes involved.
The government of Guyana must tell the Guyanese people, that in order to build a framework for robust accountability and transparency, it must enact the enabling legislation, and engage specialists in the legal, accounting, investigation, intelligence, enforcement, special prosecutors, negotiators, ICT, banking and a number of allied professions; which necessitates a comprehensive approach for capacity building, and will only yield tangible results in years to come.
The people must know that if a corrupt government ever gets hold of an oil economy; its members will soon purchase war planes and tankers to entrench themselves. The government must also admit it is in a unique position; similar to the one that the late President Mandela was in, when he took over South Africa, in which the “opposition ecosystem” controls three-quarters of the country’s wealth.
In the interim, Guyana can continue to learn much about how to recover stolen assets from its association with the (STAR) Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative of the World Bank and UNODC, among others. More significantly, the key players in the asset recovery process must abandon the belief that it will be business as usual with respect to their personal protection.
Clairmont Featherstone
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