McCoy’s dismantling of Cathy Hughes fully justified

Mar 27, 2023 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – I fail to fathom why Chairperson of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Cathy Hughes, has uttered her “… baseless criticism of Government’s newly introduced electronic identification system.” I note that Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Public Affairs, Kwame McCoy, has denounced this former Minister of Public Telecommunications for her unjustified criticism of this all-important development, done with the requisite legal process. As McCoy pointed out, she did profit from government contracts during her time in office, when in dissimulating manner, she ‘did a lot of things’ in this general area. Since Minister McCoy dealt with the sordid ethics of Ms. Hughes, I will just mention a few things which add to her wasteless ‘criticize for criticizing’ sake approach.

First, I point readers to a financial crime magazine’s article, “Digitalization and the Fight against Financial Crime,” published back in Feb, 28, 2019. The gist was that digitalization is transforming the fight against financial crimes, with new technologies helping legitimate industry players to root out corruption (even though creating opportunities for criminals to exploit the same). I remind the naysayers that digitalization offers enormous advantages in the global fight against financial crimes. We need to bear in mind that in moving away from traditional paper-based identity verification to embrace digital equivalents transcends geographies and enhances both speed and efficiency.

Secondly, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic Government, in its push for this development is clearly saying that it is open to scrutiny. If Government were corrupt, this is certainly not the move to make.

In countries that have efficiently digitised a major part of their financial infrastructure (e.g., many Nordic ones), very few people carry cash. It is safe to assume that a significant part of the cash in use comes either from criminal activities or the black labor market. This means that large-scale corruption will also become more difficult to conceal. Not only will it be possible to trace kickback from large public construction projects, it will also be possible to program the digital currency, so that the funds allocated to a construction project can only be used for specific purposes and circumstances related to the construction. The ability to track payments will also make it difficult to conduct money-laundering, hide money at tax havens or commit white-collar fraud. So ethically, and in the name of better transparency, this electronic identification system is a must.

Editor, I joined with Minister Kwame McCoy, who explained that this system will bring monumental benefits to Guyanese, (thus) taking the economy to new heights in terms of modernisation. If Guyana had gone this route, say five years ago, then the truth would have been known regarding Ms. Hughes’ private company’s receiving millions in contracts from government through her ministry, when she was a minster in the erstwhile government. McCoy added that, “There are many more corrupt deals in which she was implicated in. Therefore, Cathy is morally bankrupt and unfit to address issues of governance.”

I emphatically iterate, that with this impending Electronic identification (eID), that is the Electronic Identification system, phenomena, like Cathy’s surreptitions, will not surface that easily. I am indeed inclined to believe that “The ambition, like all of the other members of the A Partnership For National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC), is to scuttle projects of the PPPC by requesting information, and then using the information which is shared in the spirit of transparency, to extort stakeholders in the project.”

As we know, the Government signed a US$35.4 million contract with a German-based company, Veridos Identity Solutions, for the implementation of the national electronic Identification (ID) Card. I hope that this project will be swiftly executed. After all, digital identity is well and truly established as one of the most significant technology trends on the planet.

Yours truly,

Henry Singh

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McCoy’s dismantling of Cathy Hughes fully justified

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