Convene an urgent meeting on the setting up of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) and the Integrity Commission is the advice of the private sector to the government and the opposition and it also revealed today that it had written President Donald Ramotar in February on the growing perception of “widespread corruption in our country”.
The Private Sector Commission (PSC) has been criticized in recent days by the Alliance For Change (AFC) for being concerned over stalled amendments to the anti-money laundering bill but not evincing similar qualms about other bodies such as the PPC which the opposition has been pressing the government on for many years.
In a statement today, the PSC set about addressing the issue.
It said “In February this year, the Private Sector Commission wrote His Excellency the President expressing its serious concern over the growing perception of `widespread corruption in our country’. The Commission pointed to the fact that `this perception is strengthened by the government’s lack of attention to the functioning of those institutions to which the government is already committed and which are intended to serve as the bulwark against corruption’.
“The Commission referred His Excellency, in particular, to the Public Procurement Commission, Integrity Commission and Financial Intelligence Unit and urged that the President `take the necessary action to have these institutions fully operationalised’”.
It is unclear whether President Ramotar responded to the PSC’s letter.
The PSC statement today also said that in March, the PSC had joined with the Transparency Institute of Guyana in a statement reiterating “that the perception of corruption of Guyana is too important to be ignored and negatively impacts on business and investment” and, once again, appealed for the naming by government of the Public Procurement Commission and the Integrity Commission, as well as the appointment of an Ombudsman and the urgent need to address money laundering.
The PSC lamented that “These are matters of grave public and national interest, but, unfortunately, we are not as yet being heard. The Commission believes that the time has come for an end to the procrastination on these matters. The time has long passed for the government and the political opposition to respect and put the national interest before their political agenda and give effect to the Constitutional commitment they have made to the electorate and the nation on the setting up of these Commissions.
“It is precisely this procrastination which has led to Guyana and the wellbeing of its people being placed at grave risk by the delay of the National Assembly implementing the required legislation for the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment).
“The Private Sector Commission calls upon the Government of Guyana and the parliamentary parties to convene an extra-Parliamentary meeting to move swiftly to address the establishment and operationalisation of those institutions and to get on with the business of the nation in the National Assembly.”
The AFC has said it will not support amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) unless the PPC is in place and President Ramotar reverses his decision not to assent to two bills passed through the opposition’s one-seat majority in parliament. The major opposition grouping APNU is participating in the work of the committee which is addressing amendments to the anti-money laundering law but the next meeting will not be held until June 12. This means that Guyana will miss a May 27 deadline to be in compliance with the regime of amendments set out by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force. This could lead to Guyana being blacklisted. There are differing views on what this would mean for the financial sector here.
The procurement commission has been on the agenda for over a decade now and the government has been routinely accused by the opposition of not wanting it in place so that contracts could be shunted to favoured ones. Names of nominees to the PPC have to be submitted to the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament and then ratified by two thirds of the members of Parliament.
Addressing the matter of the procurement commission in a column in the Sunday Stabroek earlier this year, former PPP/C stalwart and Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran said:
“Ten years have passed since the Commission has been enshrined in our Constitution. During this time the allegations of corruption in procurement, and generally, have sharply escalated and no additional legal or administrative anti-corruption measures of a substantial nature have been implemented. The mechanism to deal with a substantial area of corruption allegations exists in the Public Procurement Commission.
“In the past, except during the authoritarian era of Burnham’s rule, where commissions were expected to comprise both government and opposition members, each would make their nominations and the appointments would be made. On this occasion the PNCR unwisely demanded that all the nominees had to be approved by all the political parties. As was to be expected, this led to gridlock. In a speech in the National Assembly of the Ninth Parliament President Donald Ramotar, then an MP, explained that the delay in appointing the Commission was due to the PNCR’s insistence on unanimity.
“Now that Mr Ramotar has become president, his government has changed its position and joined the PNCR in its shortsighted insistence on unanimity, which he had criticized in the National Assembly. We have seen that such insistence, enshrined in the Constitution, has resulted in gridlock in the appointment of a chancellor and chief justice.
“But the government has now gone further and has declared that the appointment of the Public Procurement Commission is not a priority.
“Corruption is a major issue in our politics and it will not go away. It is baffling that with all the divisions and controversies arising generally from our politics, and now from the government not having a majority, that it would not want to get the issue of corruption out of the way. This leads to widespread speculation in the press and elsewhere that the government has no intention of curbing corruption because its members, friends and supporters benefit from it.”
Many observers believe that corruption is one of the reasons why many PPP supporters failed to turn out to vote at the last elections thereby depriving the PPP of its absolute majority. While in the absence of scientific polling no one can be certain about the reasons for PPP supporters migrating to the AFC or staying at home, there is little doubt that a strong sense of dissatisfaction exists among PPP supporters which will not improve unless there is a dramatic improvement in the conditions of sugar workers, a determined effort to tackle corruption and productive relations with the opposition in Parliament which see the country moving forward. Belated efforts to strengthen the party’s organizational apparatus, engage supporters in their communities and workplaces and blaming the opposition will not do the job.
There are really no insuperable obstacles to the establishment of the Commission. The government will need to understand that because of its minority status in the National Assembly, it has lost its capacity to have a majority on the Commission.
