Former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran says that corruption continues to be a major problem here and the PPP/C government should establish a permanent, high-level office to counter it.
Writing in his column in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, Ramkarran noted the recent VICE News reports on Guyana and said while there was no smoking gun, its interviews with several Chinese businessmen revealed activities akin to bribery and money laundering.
Ramkarran, who was the presidential candidate for A New and United Guyana at the 2020 general elections, said that the allegations had much resonance and noted that President Irfaan Ali has since suggested that there should be an investigation.
“Whatever the investigation may or may not reveal or prove, whether it is a police investigation or one by a commission of inquiry, VICE News exposed a sliver of what many believe to be the ugly underbelly of widespread corruption in Guyana”, Ramkarran stated.
Positing that the issue of corruption has been of concern to many people, Ramkarran noted that the PPP had complained bitterly about it during the 2015 to 2020 term of office of APNU+AFC.
He said that the PPP “somehow believes that the nozzle of corruption was locked tight during its term of office, opened to full flow during APNU+AFC’s term, and has closed shut again. Corruption doesn’t work like that. It has a life of its own. Once it starts, it grows inexorably. Once entrenched, its eradication, if possible, is a herculean task. The population of Guyana, and I mean the entire population, except government members, know that corruption exists and with increasing government expenditure and more services, it’s getting worse. The reason that corruption is getting worse is that the Government refuses to acknowledge that there is a problem and, therefore, sees no need to do anything further about it”.
Ramkarran, who quit the PPP in 2012 after he said corruption was endemic and the government was doing nothing about it, said in his column yesterday that despite the fact that Guyana has a variety of anti-corruption instruments it had dropped two points in the latest Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.
He lauded the work being done here by Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc to keep the issue of corruption in the public domain and said that the displaying by the government of hostility to these bodies instead of engaging them tells its own story.
On what the government should do, Ramkarran, who had been a member of the PPP for nearly 50 years when he resigned, said that it ought to accept that corruption is an issue that must be addressed.
“With an economy expanding by leaps and bounds, weak administrative systems not geared to the delivery of services in an expeditious manner and inadequate remuneration across the public service, Guyana is particularly vulnerable. Therefore, the Government ought to dispense with the notion that those who raise the issue of corruption are all against it. It ought to embrace the view that at least some of those who would like to see corruption reduced, including vast numbers of people who are silent, but who are the daily victims of petty corruption which is widespread, would like to see the Government do better”, Ramkarran said.
He added that a change of attitude will earn the Government broad sympathy and support.
“That new attitude should generate the establishment of a special, permanent, high-level office, dedicated to a long-term effort to reducing corruption. The first task of such an office would be to engage with international institutions, such as the World Bank, the UN and many others that have expertise and are willing to devise and implement measures. Unless the Government acts now, corruption will become entrenched, if it is not already so, and will eventually consume its own ranks. And for those who are tempted, they should know that corruption cannot be hidden. Every act of high-level corruption is, or becomes, known and is whispered across Georgetown”, he asserted.
