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WE MUST INSIST…
A few weeks ago, there was a march through the streets of Georgetown to bring awareness to the rampant corrupt practices that have plagued the nation. It was meant to alert the public that corruption affects everyone and therefore everyone should be involved in helping to reduce it.
The march came on the heels of the leader of the opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, pronouncing the coalition government as the most corrupt in the English-speaking Caribbean.
A strange pronouncement if we have ever heard one. It is public knowledge that under Jagdeo’s presidency, Guyana was deemed the second most corrupt government in the Caribbean after Haiti. Several international organizations have attested to the massive corruption that took place in Guyana between 2000 and 2015. They include Interpol, the U.S. Homeland Security, U.S. State Department, United Nations Drugs and Crime Office, Transparency International, and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force. This has made a mockery of Jagdeo’s propagandist accusation of corruption against this government.
Under the PPP, very little, if anything institutionally was done to stem corruption and the money laundering schemes. So had Jagdeo accepted the State Asset Recovery Agency’s invitation to march against corruption, there’s every likelihood that he would have been marching forever.
The fight against corruption matters, because corruption erodes the fabric of society and undermines the people’s trust in government institutions. It is an obstacle to democracy and the rule of law. It depletes the national wealth, robs the poor of jobs and vital health care, educational and social services, and degrades the national environment. The British High Commissioner to Guyana who took part in the symbolic march warns that there should be no impunity for those found culpable of corruption because everyone is subjected to the laws of the land, regardless of their status.
His remarks came shortly after the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) had slapped fraud and other related charges on the former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh and the former Director of the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL), Mr. Winston Brassington. The charges resulted from years of forensic audits and intense investigation and evidence gathered by SOCU.
According to SOCU, charges are pending for others in the PPP for the questionable sale of state lands and properties to themselves, relatives and friends. Jagdeo has dubbed the charges as frivolous, but both Singh and Brassington who reside overseas have refused to return Guyana to fight them.
In a retaliatory move, the PPP filed private criminal charges of misconduct against the Ministers of Public Health, Volda Lawrence and Social Cohesion, Dr. George Norton for bypassing the procurement process. The charges were dismissed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), but the PPP filed three more charges against the Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan and the former Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine.
The charges filed against the Ministers were deemed to be trumped-up charges because they were done without any proper police investigation and are based solely on malice, vindictiveness and vagary by the PPP. However, legal experts have claimed that it would not only be an aberration with respect to the laws of the country, but also an abuse and travesty of the justice system, a colossal insult to good governance, and a waste of taxpayers’ money if the unsubstantiated charges are allowed to proceed.
The PPP knows that it lost the last election due to embarrassing scandals, unhindered corruption, woeful mismanagement of state assets, distrust and malevolence, and is trying desperately to regain the seat of power. However, no one must lose sight of the bigger picture. No matter who leads our nation, we must insist that transparency and accountability are given the highest priority.
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