The Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc (TIGI) has rebuffed an attack on it by Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Juan Edghill.
In Monday’s Kaieteur News, Edghill was quoted as describing TIGI as a “jaundice(d) and prejudice(d) group comprising well known public critics of the Government of Guyana and projects being executed under this Administration”. He went on to say that because of this TIGI’s reports will be similarly jaundiced and that worldwide corruption watchdog Transparency International’s reports which have put Guyana in the category of most corrupt are based on “who they talk to and rely on for information in Guyana”.
Yesterday, TIGI issued a statement emphasising that TIGI “is no way involved in the compilation of the Corruption Perception Index (CPI). Transparency International’s policy is not to involve local chapters and affiliates. We were also not asked to provide, nor did we provide, any data that can be used to compile the index. If one were to check Transparency International’s website, one would have realized that the CPI is based on experts’ opinions of public sector corruption. It scores and ranks countries based on how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be. It is a composite index, a combination of surveys and assessments of corruption, collected by a variety of reputable institutions, such as the African Development Bank, the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, and the Economist Intelligence Unit. In total, 13 such institutions were involved in the surveys and assessments worldwide.
In the case of Guyana, the CPI for 2013 was based on surveys conducted by four reputable international institutions: International Country Risk Guide, Global Insight Country Risk Ratings, World Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment and the World Economic Forum.
Guyana’s average score from these four was the second lowest in the Caribbean in terms of the CPI, Haiti being the lowest with a score of 19, TIGI said.
“It is interesting to note that the World Bank’s assessment of Guyana was 23 out of 100 which is somewhat lower than the average score of 27. In addition, as recent as this week, the World Bank released its 2014 World Development Report which indicated that, with a per capita income of US$3,410, Guyana has also been rated as the second lowest in the Caribbean, the lowest again being Haiti”, TIGI added.
The local anti-corruption body said research has shown that the main cause of corruption is poverty, and the two assessments on Guyana, that is, the CPI and the per capita income, are further confirmation of this.
TIGI noted that Guyana was first surveyed in 2005 while TIGI was formed in November 2010. “Contrary to the Minister’s assertion, it is possible that, had it not been for the presence of TIGI, a the civil society watchdog institution, Guyana’s ranking and score for the last three years might have been much lower.
“As regards the description of us as being a `jaundiced and prejudiced group’, we wish to let the Minister know that our directors are highly trained academically and professionally. They are people of the highest integrity of character and moral standing, and they have the best interest of the country at heart. However, because of the very nature of our work as the only civil society watchdog institution that promotes good governance practices, transparency, accountability and the elimination of corruption wherever it may exist, we are viewed as `anti-government’. But this need not be so because perceptions of corruption in the public sector should not necessarily be viewed as an indictment against of the Government. For every act of corruption, there is the corrupter and the corrupted, and invariably the former is not the government official!
“We are prepared to work with the Government in a genuine partnership in putting Guyana first. We are committed to this, and we offer our dedicated service to this cause”, TIGI said.
