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‘Corruption will redirect benefits of oil from citizens’ – Shadow Natural Resources Minister
Shadow Minister of Natural Resources, Shurwayne Holder providing comments during an Opposition press conference on Thursday.
Kaieteur News – The failure of government to commission an international independent investigation into the serious allegations of corruption, leveled against Chief Policymaker for the Oil and Gas Sector and Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo can result in severe economic impacts for the country.
Shadow Minister of Natural Resources, Shurwayne Holder put this into perspective yesterday, during a press conference held by the opposition. Holder explained that oil producing nations are prone to corruption and this can hinder the growth of the country and more importantly, the development of its people through the redirecting of public funds. He explained: “It is well established that countries that are producers of oil and gas are prone to much more corruption and so it therefore means that the benefits that we would expect or our people here in Guyana are expecting from oil, if corruption is prevalent, or if it continues to increase then it will affect our ability or our resources would be directed in a different direction other than meeting the ordinary people of this country.”
Holder was at the time responding to a question from this newspaper, initially posed to the Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton. Kaieteur News had asked the Leader to share his views on how the failure to conduct an impartial investigation into the allegations of corruption against the VP could impact the economic trajectory of the country. For his part, Norton pointed to the importance of an independent probe being conducted, since he believes the Guyana Police Force (GPF) was under the control of government.
Meanwhile, he noted that Guyana does not find itself in a unique position, as developing states are often gripped by corruption. In Guyana’s case, the Leader of the Opposition believes that 41% of the infrastructure budget is likely to land in the hands of “private corrupt persons who are associated with the PPP.”
“What that means is millions of Guyana dollars that should be going into providing goods and services for the people of Guyana will not go there. What that means is that there will be the continuation of poverty,” Norton stressed.
The Opposition Leader reasoned that while corruption is dangerous for a country, it becomes even more concerning when those accused can rest assured that the police and other institutions established to keep corruption on their radar are prevented from performing its functions. He said, “Immediately the conditions are created for increased corruption so the trajectory that we are seeing here is one that will move in the direction of poverty, one that will move in the direction of corruption and one that will result in increased lawlessness.”
Economic Advisor to the Leader, Elson Low highlighted that a number of damning allegations were leveled against Jagdeo in the documentary, released by Vice News, each of which must be investigated. He pointed out for instance that it was mentioned that oil companies too were involved in alleged corrupt acts in Guyana, while allegations of money laundering were also exposed, among others.
Additionally, Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amanza Walton-Desir told reporters that high levels of corruption can impact the level of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as well as the lack of transparency. She therefore pointed out, “We can’t talk as a country about attracting Foreign Direct Investment and do little to address the endemic problem of corruption.”
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