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The insidious nature of corruption
Witness tampering. Evidence tainting and diluting. And at the end, obstruction of justice. Justice thwarted and denied, in an unending series of frauds and injustices that plague this tortured Guyana from coast to coast and at every rung in the ladder of this society.
It is only part of the kitchen sink.
The matter still unfolding relative to alleged acts of misconduct at the National Procurement and Tender Board (NPATB) possesses all the elements of what is succinctly outlined above. It indicates a still-growing investigation into alleged breaches at NPATB as but the tip of the longstanding iceberg firmly rooted here that goes under the name corruption.
Perhaps, a more appropriate label might be high treason. For these onslaughts against people and state menace the character and existence of both.
Even passing interest succeeds in deciphering what is now the fixed modus operandi of the convicts-in-waiting across the length of this land, and what has transformed into a settled and accepted way of life. The sheer magnitude of the numbers, the layers, the cabals, the relationships, the concentric circles, and the wide-ranging supporting cast of assorted powers and pilots, middlemen, and bit players brings reeling, staggering and cringing as to what fate holds in store for this country.
On the rare occasions that crooked bureaucrats are caught in the act (they have to be, since there are no whistleblowers of standing or substance), a number of motions are released with almost military precision. They provide the first insights into a sophisticated mechanism aimed at protecting at all costs, and with all stops pulled, every favour called in, and every ally–whether existing or potential–recruited to run to the rescuing.
A senior official is snared. It appears to be almost by accident. Having been caught in flagrante delicto, through an irrefutable electronic evidence trail, there is still no readiness to bite the bullet and to dilute the matter that has dead to rights, as to either error or misinterpretation or entrapment (or any of the other usually spurious defenses tendered).
There first follows the now automatic immediacy of lawyering up, and with which comes the caution of: say absolutely nothing. In the ensuing silence and investigatory fact-finding buildup, there is casting about for: 1) identifying the best strategy; 2) disclosing known vulnerabilities; 3) reaching out to possible helpers on the inside; and 4) making overtures to the waiting sharks on the outside.
Some local legal professionals have earned dubious distinctions as full-fledged and first-rate coordinators of services of a certain kind, and for marshalling the willing of a particular inclination.
In today’s Guyana, what may have started out as an open and shut case anywhere, turns out to be one without a door or a jamb against which to brace. Thus, voice tapes and videotapes lose some of their traction and sting.
For the next step in an arc of deception and criminality is to meet secretly with people, or get messages to them to remove the bodies and bloodstains. If the corroborating paper and other trails are made to disappear, then genuinely committed state prosecutors are already looking at a losing predicament. They are going to war with the legal equivalent of matchsticks.
Further, people on the inside are made to either forget or dissemble or outright falsify what took place or what are the accepted best practices. They do the latter at great personal peril, but if the price is right, then the enticements might be too good to say no to. They normally are.
Is it any wonder that most matters illicit go nowhere in this society?
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