Dear Editor,
I just saw a very disturbing documentary on YouTube called “How Exxon stole a 3rd world country”. It was quite eye opening and spoke of wide spread corruption by Exxon of the government, the legal profession, the EPA and the press. The accusations raised are quite serious and the government should allow for an external audit of the personal finances of those implicated by the documentary. This means a financial audit of those in government from the President and all members of his cabinet to other key members of Parliament including leading opposition members, the head of the bar association, its leadership and top performing members, the board of the EPA and the boards of key newspapers in the country. The financial audit should also be followed by a non-biased Commission of Inquiry to determine where the corruption has taken place and to what extent have key leaders and individuals in key influential positions been corrupted. As the saying goes, “if you have nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear”.
Going forward we must also support the establishment of a nonpartisan committee to manage the sector with continual audits of its members’ finances to ensure corruption is not taking place. Based on what has been presented by the documentary, the committee to manage the sector is urgently needed to end the mentioned corruption and ensure the proper management of Exxon and the oil sector. Otherwise the integrity of our institutions for good governance will always be in question. This is a very serious issue and the accusations mentioned could bring down the government if the corruption is not uprooted and prevented from reoccurring. We have just celebrated Diwali and this joyous festival of good over evil also brings with it an opportunity to clean our country of the evil that has been hindering our sustainable development.
Sincerely,
Jamil Changlee
Chairman
The Cooperative Republicans of Guyana
