Dear Editor,
Many believe that corruption – the use of public office for private gain – is a major problem in Guyana. At the same time, most citizens are unhappy with their standard of living and Guyana’s level of development. The experts agree that corruption and development are linked; higher levels of corruption result in poverty, unhappiness and hardship for citizens, and underdevelopment for the country.
The crime of bribery is the most well known form of corruption; it hits us directly in the pocket. There are other types of corruption though, one of the worst is called graft.
According to Wikipedia, “Graft, a form of political corruption, is the unscrupulous use of a politician’s authority for personal gain.” If a person in high office, uses his position to give state contracts to friends and cronies, in exchange for kickbacks – some of the money that the state pays for the project – that is graft. If an official uses her inside knowledge to give an unfair business advantage to a friend, that is also graft. The experts say that the effects of graft can be devastating to a country and its people.
Editor, graft causes suffering owing to substandard works. If a contractor gets a state contract by corrupt means, that contractor is likely to do a poor job. This results in overpriced, but structurally unsound schools, stellings and bridges. And roads may fall apart one month after being built. The effects are potholes, flooding and uncomfortable children in unsafe schools.
Graft results in projects that we don’t need, at the expense of those that we do. In other words, real priorities – such as water, electricity, sanitation, health care, schools, roads, etc – are neglected, in favour of unnecessary projects that will generate greater personal gain for officials. So we end up without the essentials. Instead, the landscape becomes littered with white-elephant projects that we do not need or cannot use.
Graft also results in the depletion of national wealth. This happens because scarce public resources are funnelled to private pockets. In many cases, the money for projects is borrowed from international banks, and must be repaid by taxpayers, with interest. So, instead of the money being used to feed the poor or house the homeless, it ends up in private bank accounts or real-estate investments. These investments, whether useless hotels or ocean-front mansions, do not benefit the people.
Guyana’s latest score on Transparency Internation-al’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), was a deplorable 27 out of 100 points; the worst score in the English-speaking Cari-bbean. We may therefore conclude that we have a problem. Unsurprisingly, Guyana is currently ranked a low 118th out of 187 countries, on the United Nations Development Index. The correlation between development and corruption is underscored too, when one looks at other countries. Western European countries may be some of the most developed in the world, with some of the happiest citizens. Their average CPI is currently an enviable 66 – the global average is 43. On the other hand, many believe that sub-Saharan African countries are the least developed, with citizens suffering terribly. Unsurprisingly, their average CPI is only 33.
Clearly, corruption sucks the life out of national development and saps the happiness of citizens. If Guyana has such a problem, Guyanese must take action to remove it. Otherwise, there will be no development and happiness will always be an elusive dream.
Yours faithfully,
Mark DaCosta