STRAIGHT TO THE POINT

May 27, 2018 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

The Alliance for Change (AFC) must once again use this valuable space to address the very strange positions adopted/adumbrated by the Private Sector Business Support Organizations (BSO).
Last week, the umbrella Private Sector Commission (PSC) asked for a meeting with government officials to discuss their “problems relat(ed) to investor confidence in the economy”.
So let us get straight to the point. There is little doubt that the BSOs want opportunities to sit down with the government’s representatives to most likely ask about plans by certain state agencies, e.g. SOCU and SARA, to recover the acknowledged Billions of dollars worth of stolen state assets, and the means of recovery, whether through civil action or criminal proceedings. The message coming across says that people seem to be jumpy about the progress being made by the aforenamed agencies.
The latest request by the PSC for a sit-down does have some connection to the criminal charges laid and continuing investigations into the actions and behaviours of certain ministers and cohorts in the last PPP government. In a recent statement, SOCU said that they are preparing dozens of cases linked to alleged misconduct while these people were in office.
The private sector BSOs have led the general public to believe that more than a few of their leaders and players remain closely aligned with the PPP party. Many of them hold on to the opinions expressed by that party that their leaders are being persecuted and prosecuted. But SOCU and their overseas-based counterparts are finding more and more evidence of alleged wrongdoing during the PPP’s time in office, from 1992 to 2015.
This is a good time to point out that Guyana did record a record low of 25/100 points on Transparency International’s Corruption Index by country in 2006. From then to 2016, the country maintained an average score of 28.15 points. Finally in 2017 our ratings began an upward climb and reached 38 Points. There is still a very long way to go before we could say with surety that Guyana has the unmitigated confidence of foreign investors.
It is worth repeating what we said two weeks ago, that had the Coalition Government in 2015/6 removed the PPP’s lieutenants from public office after their party was booted out of Government, the very unpleasant taint of corruption would not still be dogging our progress.
The 2017 TGI score of 38 percent is not enough, and we know that there is a mountain to climb as we work to remove corrupt practices from the various systems. We said that we would engender Change and that promise must be kept.
Did you know that Guyana used to be called ‘Lawless’, “Dodge City”, “The OK Corral” and the “Wild Wild West/South” by the international community? One potential investor in the mining sector had complained that getting a business started in Guyana was like ‘pulling teeth’, with a large number of palms to grease just to get advice and Permissions. One could only imagine what they had to give up to receive some concessions, i.e. those who were not Bai Shan Lin with deep pockets.
The most recent SOCU cases are premised on ‘selling off state lands below market prices’, and SOCU says that there are about 30 additional public misconduct charges pending against the two men.
Ironically, the private sector and BSOs were very quiet pre-2015 when the PPP was giving away state assets to its supporters at home and in the diaspora. Back then, despite objections from rights organizations, civil society, the media, opposition parties and religious groups, absolutely nothing was done to improve investors confidence. Instead, bribes were demanded from those same foreign and domestic investors in return for official favours.
Investor confidence went into a coma when a high-ranking foreign diplomat, complained that large amounts of cocaine were very likely hidden in every export from Guyana during that era. Thereafter, narcotics were listed as a ‘major economic export’ from Guyana alongside gold, sugar, bauxite and rice. We were known as the narcotics transshipment port for South America.
Things have changed but the private sector is not happy. Political commentator Ramon Gaskin said last week that, “a climate of hostility and confrontation is in the air”, and he links this atmosphere to the recent charges, fear of the charges to come, and the possibility of jail time for offenders.
Gaskin said, “It is whether they (PSC) have the moral authority to speak on these matters. They don’t. The government has every right to investigate any person in Guyana who steals state property … and place them before the court”.
Lest we forget, Gaskin’s association with the PPP dates back to the 1960s. He was once an advisor to the late Cheddi Jagan. He insisted that the private sector has no moral ground to pontificate, and he has no sympathy for those who abused power in office and enriched themselves “in American dollars”.
Gaskin also advised the current PSC Chairman to remember that the cases are sub judice and should not be discussed in much detail, not even the disputed piece of prime, under-valued land near Turkeyen.
The Government’s team sitting down with the PSC should point out these bits of hypocrisy. When the PSC does have genuine concerns, Government remains obligated to address them to everyone’s satisfaction. After all, the business community is indisputably a key stakeholder in any nation’s development.
Nevertheless, the PSC must be fair and balanced to erase the belief that their complaints are self-serving, and that they have precious little to do with investor confidence in Guyana.