International Anti-corruption Day

Dec 13, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Guyana could observe International Anti-Corruption Day every day of the year, and its Governments would still be among the most corrupt anywhere. Guyana’s Governments and Guyanese Politicians could make all the speeches they wish about how much they are for anti-corruption values, and they would still rank highly among the worst falsifiers and fraudsters in the world.

Prior PPP/C Governments, the Coalition Government, and this present PPP/C Government (the worst one) are as rotten and corrupt as they come, but still they all pretend at having clean hands, and doing what is beneficial for Guyanese.

Our oil is riddled with secrecy, which reinforces the widespread perception that chronic corruptions are at work, and it is what stains the face and mouth of any Guyanese Politician who says otherwise. Public works projects suffer from one setback after another, with more millions being the repeated remedy, but which only expands the corruption to deeper levels. The latest rank example of the perception of possible corruption at work involves the Good Hope Secondary School. A building project with an initial price of $840M now requires an additional $520M to get to the finish line. This same Good Hope School was scheduled to be completed in January 2020, yet despite four extensions of time, and almost three years later, it is incomplete. Even more infuriating is that the new Contractors have to get over a half billion dollars, or a whopping 62% of the original project award, to complete the Good Hope School.

What work was done by the first Contractor for that $840M? What was done with the four extensions of time? Where was the Coalition Government during all this time? Who was supervising the project, documenting its lack of progress, and reporting the unacceptable failures up the chain of command? Most importantly, why is nobody in jail for what smells in the worst way possible? How is it that there is never any restitution by nonperforming contractors when these ongoing failures keep occurring?

The PPP/C Minister in charge of education made a nice speech about the June 2023 delivery date to the new Contractors, with her demands for quality work and timely work. We have heard this before, and as much as it is helpful to hear again, Guyanese wonder if this is not part of games being played with them. That is, after the sharp speeches and sweaty posturing, they will once again find themselves in the same place, if not a darker hole. An interesting developing in this Good Hope Secondary School project is that the people who were supervising it have now been awarded $520M and six months to get this long overdue project done and handed over. We say little about this choice, other than we watch to see how well it will live up to expectations (and the demands of the minister), and for which it has our best wishes.

Separately, we note that the International Community pointed to something that we mentioned earlier in this writing. Influential people in the International Community resident here spoke well of our strong anti-corruption Laws, but also emphasized the need for strong action to be taken against the swindlers and scoundrels that litter our environment. We interpret that to mean court cases of substance, and penalties that put the guilty in jail. Further, we say what the knowledgeable spokespeople of the International Community are constrained from saying and going to some specific places that we can.

That is, considering the reality of Guyana’s environment, stronger action against the corrupt should cast the widest net possible, and reel in from big fish to little ones. It is our position that this includes numerous Politicians, Public Servants at many levels, and those that both groups that they do business with, and involving billions in taxpayers’ dollars. In essence, Guyana has spoken too long, and has written too much, but has done the barely negligible after those actions.This now appears to be pacifiers and more of the acute deviousness being played on trusting Guyanese.

We have the Laws; therefore we must use them to the fullest. When we continue as before, then anti-corruption Laws are nothing but a cruel joke on Guyanese.

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