Dear Editor,
It has been revealed that a very large number of some very senior people holding very important public positions, including Ministers and Parliamentarians, have been allowed by our government to continue to serve while ignoring and disobeying the law which requires them to submit declarations of their assets and liabilities to the Integrity Commission.
The enforcement of this law is being ignored in exactly the same manner and with precisely the same contempt for the law, as shown by our political leaders to that of holding dual citizenship while serving in the National Assembly.
The Chairman of the Integrity Commission has resorted to publicizing the names of these offenders on seven separate occasions but has not moved to enforce the law and prosecute the offenders. I ask why?
The list of offenders includes heads and others in senior positions in government agencies such as the GRA, the Procurement Board, the Elections Commission, the Prison Services, the Guyana Energy Authority, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Finance, and that is to name just a few.
All of these offenders continue to act in authority, every day, make decisions every day on our behalf, spend our money and cause us, the ordinary citizens, to conform to the law which they enforce or be prosecuted. We also pay their salaries.
I ask, therefore, why should we respect or obey or conform to any decision that these persons who presume to govern our lives make or seek to impose on us, the ordinary citizens, who pay our taxes and obey the law. I ask, have they no sense of civic duty, no conscience?
Perhaps our President, whom I have always held in great regard, would do us all the favour of explaining why this illegal practice and behaviour is allowed to continue in his government without restraint or restriction or punishment, that is, when next he asks us to elect him to be our President.
Yours faithfully,
Kit Nascimento
