Guyana is again ranked among the most corrupt in Transparency International’s (TI) latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), with a rank of 119 and a score of 29.
A country or territory’s score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). In the latest report, CPI 2015, released yesterday, Guyana’s score was 29, compared to 30 in 2014, 27 in 2013 and 28 the year before.
For 2014, Guyana’s ranking was 124th out of 175 countries and for last year, the country’s ranking is 119 out of 168 countries.
Guyana has the same ranking and score as Azerbaijan, Russia and Sierra Leone.
The usual Caricom top performers Barbados and The Bahamas were not included in this year’s CPI.
Reverend Compton Meerabux, the President of the local watchdog group, the Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc (TIGI), when contacted, told Stabroek News that the country’s latest CPI score shows that there is still a high level of corruption in the country.
“Corruption remains a blight on this country,” he said. He said that there is “grand corruption” in Guyana. “With the abuse of high level power that benefits a few at the expense of the majority, steals from the poor and causes unemployment and crime and causes serious widespread harm to individuals and society, sad to say it often goes unpunished,” he said.
According to Meerabux, the solution to corruption is working together. He said everyone can play a role in improving transparency and accountability. “In this way we stamp out the abuse of power, bribery and shed light on secret deals,” he asserted.
The TIGI head said the country has failed to improve its score because of a failure to put legislative measures in place that can help in insulating the country from the corruption plague. “We will continue to fail if we don’t put in (measures) such as the declaration of assets, Integrity Commission and the Public Procurement Commission” among other watchdog systems that can help safeguard against corruption, he declared.
He added that what is needed also are strong public institutions like the police and judiciary and more independence from the media. The TIGI head said there needs to be a separation of the judiciary, police and prosecution. He contended that prosecutors have to be certified and well paid and not be subject to bribery.
Meerabux added too that the public has to demand high levels of integrity of the people in power and the judiciary should not distinguish between rich and poor. He added that the big ones in the cocaine business are the untouchables here.
Further, he said, the problem stems in large part from white collar crime. He declared that corruption steals from the poor, and the rich because of greed, also steal from the poor.
The TIGI head said when the wealthy because of greed steal from the poor, it is robbing the country of development and this is why the country suffers poor corruption rankings. He highlighted for example the case of a non-functioning x-ray machine because something is missing and said that it is likely that a technician stole it and the poor wanting service, now have to travel long distances to get the same service they would have gotten from that facility.
According to Meerabux, while persons talk about the increase in crime, it is because the rich steal from the poor. He said that money is not filtering down to the poor and is not going for the developmental services it should that would have provided education and skills that will in turn equip them with the necessary skills to provide jobs for people in these poor areas.
According to the TIGI head, there is no use saying that there is a high level of crime because the money that should have been put to educate youths and give them skills have been stolen by white collar criminals.
“The programmes are not there because the money for the programmes is in some white collar person’s pocket,” he said.
The TIGI head said that in seeking to root out corruption, the search should start at the top.
