Govt. undermining national efforts to combat corruption -Opposition

Dec 10, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – As the World yesterday observed International Anti-Corruption Day under the theme “Your right, your role: Say no to Corruption,” Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon is of the view that the incumbent administration, since taking office, has instead regressed the national efforts at combating corruption.

Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon

Harmon gave his views yesterday by way of a public statement marking the occasion to “encourage all Guyanese at home and abroad to take action against corruption because it hinders growth and development.”
According to Harmon, “It is your right to fight against the scourge called corruption; you have a role in this fight, don’t be silent, let us stand together and say no to corruption.”
The Opposition Leader was adamant that the incumbent administration has, by its actions since taking office in 2020, eroded the tremendous strides in the national fight against corruption.
He cited, as one example, the dismantling of the State Asset Recovery Agency (SARA), which he insisted was done to protect friend and cronies.
According to Harmon, in 2017 the ousted coalition administration passed the SARA Act leading to the setting up of the State Assets Recovery Agency, which “made tremendous strides in our fight against corruption.”
He noted that the agency trained over 3,000 public servants from the Guyana Revenue Authority, the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defense Force, the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission, the Bank of Guyana, and the Ministry of Finance.
To this end, he lamented that SARA had over 15 cases before the court at the time when it was dismantled.
These cases, according to Harmon, “indicted many current Senior Government Officials and their private sector cronies, who were all involved in various forms of corruption.”
He posited, “If SARA no longer exists then the cases before the court could not be tried, so the PPP’s only option was to shut the agency down under false pretense, giving themselves and friends who funded their elections campaign a free pass.”
“The Coalition while in Government, through many of its agencies, involved the general public in the fight against corruption as we created mechanisms for them to anonymously report acts of corruption. The man in the street was able to report on work in his community.”
According to Harmon, “to us it was important to erase the scourge of corruption that pervaded every aspect of public and private life under the PPP.”
He was adamant, “since the PPP (Peoples Progressive Party) administration took office, “we have seen a drastic reduction in the efforts made by the coalition to combat corruption.”
Citing further examples, emphasizing his position, the Opposition Leader was of the view, “we are yet to see the reconstituting of the Public Procurement Commission, while every day multimillion dollar contracts are being handed to PPP cronies.”
Additionally, he said, “bribery has become the order of the day once again” and that “we have seen persons walking around with millions of dollars in bags sharing out grants that have not been properly reconciled or properly accounted for.”
He said, too, there are reports of persons collecting farmers relief grants in Region 6, who have no farms, vaccines bought through questionable means and at a questionable price.
“Vaccine book rackets and the return of the cocaine trade that appears to always be invisible to the eyes of Custom Officers; these and many more are just some of the things that exemplify the corrupt nature of the PPP administration.”
The Coalition while in Government, he said, through many of its agencies, involved the general public in the fight against corruption “as we created mechanisms for them to anonymously report acts of corruption.”
This, he said, led to Guyana in 2015 receiving its best score on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index with improvements each subsequent year.
The Vanderbilt University’s Latin American Public Opinion Project reported in 2014 that Guyana was ranked high among countries where citizens acceded to police bribery requests, and participated in bribery in schools, public health services and work settings.
By 2016, according to Harmon, “we were able to better Guyana’s position on this report. This was not done by talking about fighting corruption; it took careful planning, ardent research and a committed workforce to ensure that the right legislation was implemented and that the necessary agencies and systems were in place to make sure that our fight against corruption improved each year.”