By Concerned Guyanese
Concerned Guyanese is a diverse group of young people and professionals, in Guyana and the diaspora, who have been steadily compiling information on the clear absence of a level playing field in Guyana
As Guyanese go to the polls in three days, a recent report appeared in Kaieteur News (May 4, 2015), in which in an interview on Hard Talk, President Donald Ramotar defended his government against local and international accusations of corruption. The President went on to assert that “if you go to real corruption, I suspect that we probably have the lowest corruption rate in the whole Caribbean and most other countries,” insisting that “corruption in Guyana is only a perception and not fact.”
A similar line was taken by the taxpayer-funded Chronicle, which in its April 4th edition cited the December 2014 findings of the Latin American Public Opinion Project Surveys (LAPOP), coordinated by professors at Vanderbilt University, to bolster its claim that there is a massive gap between the incidence and perception of corruption in Guyana. It is useful to look at the questions the survey asked on corruption, which included the following:
Has a police officer asked you for a bribe in the last twelve months?; In the last twelve months, did any government employee ask you for a bribe?; In the last twelve months, to process any kind of document in your municipal government, like a permit for example, did you have to pay any money above that required by law?; Did you have to pay a bribe to the courts in the last twelve months? These questions all revolved around personal experiences in relation to micro-transactions, and tell us nothing about corruption-related issues facing the country such as public procurement of goods and services, nepotism in employment and the dispensation of favours, and the squandering of valuable natural resources (in particular, timber, gold and the spectrum) at giveaway prices. The combined cost of these institutionalized practices runs into billions of US dollars and will likely continue to impoverish Guyanese for many generations to come.
What the Chronicle also did not report was that in response to a question about the most serious problem facing the country, 25.6% responded that it was politics (corruption, poor government and politicians), and that this represented an increase from less than 15% in surveys conducted in 2006 and 2009 (the economy and security were the first and second most frequent responses). Moreover, the latest findings from the Islands and Small States Institute of the University of Malta, presented on Tuesday at the UNDP/UWI Forum on the Future of the Caribbean in Trinidad & Tobago, validate persistently bleak perceptions of corruption. In a survey of thirteen Caribbean countries, Guyana placed last on the average of governance scores. Those scores tracked three indicators: worldwide governance (which surveyed factors like accountability and control of corruption), economic resilience, and human development (focusing on health, education and standard of living). Guyana placed 13 out of 13 for both worldwide governance and human development, a desperate state of affairs reflected in real terms by the unrelenting haemorrhaging of the population.
So. Perception and reality? Since the ruling party has repeatedly called for evidence – for this final diaspora column before the May 11, 2015 elections we present some information compiled from an extensive survey of articles and editorials from the daily newspapers alone. The focus is on nepotism – which has been generally defined as the favouritism or patronage that benefits one’s family members. When it involves the state, it is a form of corruption since it amounts to the capture of publicly owned resources by a privileged minority to the exclusion and detriment of the majority.
We present three lists below to offer some examples of how the PPP seems to have given new meaning to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity – in Guyana, and under the present administration, it seems the relatives get everything.
List 1: The PPP LIST for the 2016 general elections.
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Frank Anthony is joined by his wife Shanti Singh
Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn is joined by his sister Vanessa Benn
Former Minister in the Ministry of Labour (and head of the Gender Equality Commission) Indra Chandarpal is joined by her son Rabindranath Chandarpal
Chief Whip Gail Teixeira is joined by her daughter Colleen Teixeira Khan
Cabinet Secretary Roger Luncheon is joined by his daughter Tsitsi Luncheon
Shyam Nokta, son of former Minister of Local Government Haripersaud Nokta
President Donald Ramotar is joined by his son Alexei Ramotar
Charles Ramson Jr., son of former Attorney-General Charles Ramson
Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee is joined by his daughter Rima Rohee
Facing widespread criticism, the PPP retorted sharply that they would resist efforts “to deny young professionals opportunities to serve Guyana”, issuing a statement in which they protested shrilly that “[t]he fact that some of the young people happen to be close relatives of members and supporters of the ruling PPP/C administration cannot diminish nor in any way inhibit their involvement in the national discourse for a better and more secure Guyana.” (Stabroek News, April 13, 2015).
However, the issue is not simply about the involvement of family members in politics (in Guyana all three main political parties have had husband and wife teams – the PPP’s Cheddi and Janet Jagan; the PNC’s Forbes and Viola Burnham; and the AFC’s Nigel and Cathy Hughes). It is rather the unprecedented numbers of immediate family members of the innermost and senior circle of the PPP that has raised eyebrows. Taken together, 16 individuals, or 17% (close to one fifth) of the names on the PPP list comprise this distinguished group. Put another way, if all of these individuals were on the list for the 2011 elections and had been chosen to sit in parliament, we would have ended up with immediate family members of the PPP taking up half (a whopping 50%) of the 32 seats that that party had secured! This is Guinness World Record material (and since these are the names on the current List, it could well be the reality post May 11).
LIST 2. Dispensation of jobs, resources
Lisaveta Ramotar, the daughter of President Ramotar, returned from a scholarship abroad and was made Head of the Guyana Gold Board
Alexei Ramotar, son of President Ramotar, was given a multi-million ICT project that included the laying of fibre optic cables. The younger Ramotar’s salary is reputedly at least US$2,500/month, and this even after he completely bungled the project at a cost to taxpayers of billions of dollars.
Azeena Baksh, daughter of Ali Baksh, Minister within the Ministry of Agriculture, returned from scholarship to a US University and came back to the Office of the President and was then appointed Registrar of Companies and Deeds.
Vishok Persaud, son of the former Minister of Agriculture Reepu Daman Persaud, was given the contract to import BMWs for the 2007 Cricket World Cup (there was reportedly no public bidding so one cannot say his company won the contract); given a licence for television E-Networks and is among the four in the proposed Telecommunications Act. His sister, Dr. Vindhya Persaud (who is also a PPP MP) is a director of E-Networks.
On the eve of the 2011 elections, former President Bharrat Jagdeo secretly gifted twenty two frequencies to a select group of mainly friends and family that included Telecor and Cultural Broadcasting, (owned by the wife of Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud and niece of Bharrat Jagdeo); Ruth Baljit, the sister of Robert Persaud; and Omkar Lochan, brother-in-law of Minister of Education Priya Manickchand.
The husband and wife team of Charles and Leila Ramson are both political appointees – the former is Commissioner of Information and the other is Chairperson of the Teaching Service Commission.
In defending these appointments, the PPP/C in a press release of August 1, 2014 spoke of the need not to deny young people of opportunities where qualified, and apparently not realizing the contradiction then proceeded to reference the PNC administration when party cards were allegedly necessary to obtain jobs. What this explanation misses is that if the practice of favouritism was wrong under the PNC, it must likewise be wrong under the PPP/C. All the beneficiaries of PPP/C largesse may be qualified, but in the absence of transparent and competitive processes those alleged qualifications cannot be independently verified. At least in one case, that of Alexei Ramotar, the evidence of his spectacular incompetence is already in.
List 3: Conflicts of Interest
Conflicts of interest are another feature of this PPP/C administration, which is yet another indicator of poor governance. This occurs where an individual has multiple, conflicting interests, which creates a strong possibility that his/her performance in one role could be undermined by a competing interest.
Ms. Gitanjali Singh holds the office of Audit Director in the Office of the Auditor General, which is meant to oversee the financial affairs of the country. She is the wife of Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, who is ultimately in control of those financial affairs. Commenting on this situation, Attorney-at-law and former President of the Transparency Institute Guyana Inc Gino Persaud pointed out that “The auditing process by definition requires insulation from the subject of the audit, a consideration which has been completely ignored by this incestuous appointment, which is in turn likely to undermine the effective performance and operation of the OAG.” (See Kaieteur News, 20 June 2012)
Two sons and a daughter, and possibly a nephew and niece of the Commissioner of the Guyana Revenue Authority, Khurshid Sattaur, are all employed in various positions in the Guyana Revenue Authority.
Up to 2014, Shyam Nokta served as Presidential Adviser and Head of the Office of Climate Change that was tasked with implementing the Low Carbon Development Strategy, while also acting as Managing Director of Environmental Management Consultants, a private consultancy firm that on its website describes itself as involved in a variety of biodiversity initiatives including assisting clients with “Environmental compliance monitoring…to ensure compliance with the Environmental Authorisation.” Apart from raising obvious questions about the direction of resources and contracts, the situation created here was that Nokta, acting in his private consulting capacity, would have been hired to provide environmental audits to clients that have to be submitted to the government and are then approved by the relevant agency.
These are just a few examples. Constraints of space prevent us from mentioning the giveaway of contracts to friends and political allies, where the Ramroop group of companies is one of a small coterie of consistent beneficiaries. Most recently the Government gifted a fibre optic sweetheart deal to DAX just days before the election (incidentally the very same contract that the President’s son bungled at such massive cost to the Guyanese taxpayer. Moreover, E-Networks, already mentioned above, is reported to be involved in this arrangement).
In August 2009, Distinguished Professor C.Y. Thomas described Guyana as “a state for itself”. Elaborating, Professor Thomas explained that such an entity is even worse than a failed or a criminal state, because it has no “higher altruistic purpose” of national development or national advancement, but is concerned instead only with obtaining benefits for those who control it. Sadly, the last 16 years of PPP/C rule confirm this analysis many times over, where government is run like a family business, fuelled by the unrewarded sacrifices, sweat and money of the Guyanese taxpayers; where top jobs, high-paying salaries and medical and sundry benefits are reserved for a privileged elite; where the finite natural resources of this country are captured by a few; and where there is no accountability for any of these abuses of power. There is a lot at stake and much to lose for those who have benefited from this unfair dispensation of resources. Small wonder that the LAPOP survey found that only 30.7% of Guyanese interviewed believed that “those who govern are interested in what you think,” and that of 25 countries Guyana was third from the bottom on this score (higher only than Belize and Colombia). Guyanese have been expressing their despair by voting with their feet in overwhelming numbers, and uninterruptedly so to the present day. The LAPOP Survey noted that trust in the executive, parliament and political parties has declined in Guyana. Whatever the outcome on May 11, it will take a lot of work, vigilance and commitment to change this.
