Immediate Past Chairman of the Private Sector Commis-sion (PSC) Ramesh Dookhoo last week challenged President Donald Ramotar to tackle corruption “at the top” in order to send a clear message to all that there would be zero tolerance for such practices.
Dookhoo, who emphasised that the private sector would be willing to supportefforts to root out corruption, was speaking at the commencement of the PSC Annual General Meeting held at the Pegasus Hotel last Thursday.
“You, Mr. President, have the golden opportunity to make right the tone at the top by sending a clear warning on this issue to all and sundry – in the private sector, the accounting profession, everyone. I would welcome such a sounding of an anti-corruption bell. This bell will resound in the private sector, the public sector, the accounting profession and the legal profession, the GRA and the Police Force.
“There is a concept of the ‘tone at the top’. This is a simple message that says if the perception is that the guys at the top of a company, a country or an institution are stealing and are corrupt, then it empowers all and sundry to do the same. The tone at the top is just as relevant nationally as it is for the private sector and I beseech all of us to refocus on what we do, how we make decisions and how we execute these decisions,” Dookhoo said, later adding that too many of Guyana’s leaders surround themselves “with a few loyal persons who tell them what they want to hear daily” while the truth remains hidden.”
At an Executive Committee meeting of Ramotar’s party, the PPP, the next day, former Speaker Ralph Ramkarran was confronted by other members over a recent newspaper column in which he said that corruption was pervasive and the government needed to do something about it.
Ramkarran subsequently resigned from the party, which is now making efforts to have him reconsider his decision.
Referring to the opposition parties, Dookhoo noted that it was not the first time that a political party has stood on an anti-corruption platform and attracted major support. “Let us listen to what they say. Let us take concrete steps to remedy the loopholes that create allegations of corruption at all levels of society. Let us also punish corruption,” he said.
Dookhoo added that it defies reason that the economy is “doing so well,” while the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) is “in jeopardy.” He called for there to be the creation of a group of persons to address these national issues and said the group should include parliamentarians, ministers and the relevant NGOs.
He noted that politically, “we have the will of the people being expressed in the numbers in Parliament; we have a rich democracy and a richly deserved democracy after many years of experiments with socialism.”
At the same time, Dookhoo called for the holding of long delayed local government elections, saying that the quest for centralisation has led to the destruction of local government systems. “We need local government elections, we need to revamp and to change the local government systems,” he said. “Efficient local government requires decentralisation of power to the people. We have had studies upon studies done. We also have another study being done by a team from CIDA. But we know what has to be done, let us just do it,” he added.
According to Dookhoo, there is the unprecedented generation of wealth in the country, which is also benefitting from an unrestricted freedom of the press and the presence of a strong diplomatic community. In addition, he said there is private sector-led growth that is evidenced by the increased contribution to government revenue of VAT, PAYE taxes and corporation taxes paid by the private sector.
However, he acknowledged that there are also cries of social injustice, favouritism in the award of contracts, warring ongoing between politically-affiliated businesses, and widespread allegations of corruption in public institutions and in the private sector.
Dookhoo added that while the private sector likes to talk about governance, it also has to do some introspection. “We have an organisation in the PSC umbrella that has had the same President for 12 years. We need to change this or else groupthink steps in and all kinds of bad behaviour take place,” he said, adding that the members of the PSC have 20 lawsuits against regulatory bodies “of all kinds.” The securities commission, he said, is in court by several companies and so too are the fair trading commission and other regulators.
