Guyana scores low performance on control of corruption, regulatory quality and accountability – 2021 EITI Report

Jan 07, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – Guyana’s fifth Extractive Industries and Transparency Initiative (GYEITI) Report has flagged a decline in the country’s performance as it relates to the control of corruption, regulatory quality and voice and accountability.

The Report was launched on December 29, 2023. It was completed by independent consultants Hart Group / BDO Guyana.

The EITI report is geared towards boosting the understanding of the level of contributions of the extractive sector to the economic and social development of Guyana to improve transparency and good governance at all levels of the extractive industry value chain. It incorporates information received up to December 21, 2023, and explicitly states that information received after this date has not been included.

As part of its objective to promote good governance, Guyana was assessed using the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). These include 1) Control of corruption; 2) Government effectiveness; 3) Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism; 4) Regulatory Quality; 5) Rule of Law and 6) Voice and Accountability.

While the country improved its performance in three of those areas (2, 3 and 5), it recorded a lower score on the remaining governance indicators.

The document explains, “The evolution of Guyana’s indicators below show that Guyana’s scores improved for all governance indicators in 2021 compared to 2019 except for the control of corruption. All governance indicators Guyana’s score presented head and shoulders variation between 2015 and 2019, except for the Control of Corruption and Government Effectiveness continuous progression and continuous regression respectively over the same period.”

The (WGI), according to the World Bank is a global compilation of data capturing household, business, and citizen perceptions of the quality of governance in more than 200 countries and territories. It measures the various indicators in percentile rank term, ranging from 0 (lowest rank) to 100 (highest rank).

Control of Corruption

Control of corruption captures perceptions of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as “capture” of the state by elites and private interests. It considers among other things, corruption among public officials, diversion of public funds, irregular payments in tax collection, level of “petty” corruption between administration and citizens, level of corruption between administrations and local businesses and more importantly, level of corruption between administrations and foreign companies.

According to the GYEITI Report, Guyana recorded a lower score on its control of corruption in 2022, 45.28, compared with 48.57 in 2021.

Regulatory quality

Regulatory quality captures perceptions of the ability of the government to formulate and implement sound policies and regulations that permit and promote private sector development. This WGI assess unfair competitive practices, excessive protections and whether legal and regulatory framework encourages the competitiveness of enterprises, and several others.

On this front, Guyana recorded a score of 32.55 in 2022 compared with 33.81 in 2021.

Voice and accountability

Meanwhile, as it regards voice and accountability in the country, Guyana also recorded a lower score when compared to the previous year. Guyana has been in the 55-percentile rank since 2017 according to the EITI report.

In 2021, this governance indicator was recorded at 55.56 but declined to 55.07 in 2022.

Voice and accountability capture perceptions of the extent to which a country’s citizens are able to participate in selecting their government, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of association, and a free media.

This WGI considers accountability of public officials, human rights, freedom of association, confidence in honesty of elections, freedom of the press (freedom of access to information, protection of journalists, etc.) and reliability of State accounts (completeness, audit, review law) as well as degree of transparency in public procurement, confidence in Parliament, access to information and openness and citizens right to opinion and expression.

About GYEITI

The Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI) is a part of the global initiative, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). EITI seeks to promote revenue transparency in the extractive sector in resource-rich countries. It strives to ensure transparency over payments made to and revenues received by the Government from companies in the extractive sectors. Guyana joined the EITI in 2017 and has published five EITI reports. GYEITI is governed by a broad coalition of government, civil society, and the private sector.

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• accountability, corruption, EITI, low, performance, Report

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