Anand Goolsarran

An essential aspect of public accountability is the requirement for public officials to explain their actions to enable citizens to understand the basis under which decisions are made that affect their daily lives, the communities in which they live and the country as a whole.

In our 10 February 2025 article, we began a discussion of the 2022 Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GEITI) annual report that was compiled by the Independent Administrator, BDO Professional Services Inc.

Our last two articles on Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) provoked quite a reaction from two key government officials, one of whom argued that our column did not take into account the current Administration’s efforts to reduce corruption in the public sector.

In last week’s article, we began a discussion on what Guyana can do to improve its score and ranking on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in the light of the continuing low scores it has received in the last four years.

You face a deplorable injustice: A crisis you have done next to nothing to create is wrecking economies, ruining lives, and threatening your very existence.

This year’s analysis showed again how fossil fuel corruption undermines climate efforts, including in the United States.

Say NO to corruption. It hurts us all. The economic consequences for countries with high levels of corruption are indeed very grave.

Our Motto: Say no to corruption. It hurts us all. Corruption will continue to thrive until justice systems can punish wrongdoing and keep governments in check.

Last Friday was Budget Day 2025 – the day that everyone was looking forward to for an assessment of the performance of the country’s economy in 2024 and its state of affairs at the end of that year.

In our last two articles, we commenced highlighting the significant issues that we covered in our Accountability Watch column in 2024.

In last week’s article, we began to highlight the significant issues that were covered in our Accountability Watch column in 2024.

This is our first attempt to provide readers with a summary of the main issues discussed in our weekly Accountability Watch column during the course of the year. 

Two Saturdays ago, the President announced the grant of the usual annual tax-free Christmas bonus of one month’s salary to the Disciplined Services for ‘their unwavering service, sacrifice, and commitment to safeguarding the nation’s security’.

Two Fridays ago, Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Investment Committee member, Terrence Campbell, stated that the NRF Board is a “rubber stamp” and that his efforts to be provided with the necessary justifications for withdrawals from the Fund have been stymied.

Last Monday, the Bolivian Supreme Court sentenced former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada in absentia to six years and three months in prison over his involvement in the issuing of dozens of oil contracts without parliamentary approval.

Last week, Transparency international reported that Ecuador’s National Court sentenced 20 government officials involved a corruption network, known as the Metastasis scandal, that infiltrated the country’s judicial, police and prison systems.

Last Wednesday, the authorities in New York charged Asia’s second richest man and Indian billionaire, Gautam Adani, for his involvement in a US$250 million bribery scheme to develop a major solar power plant in India.

There continues to be a peddling of the falsehood that the four forensic audits that I had undertaken in 2015 breached the Audit Act 2004 and the Procurement Act.

Last week, Transparency International (TI) reported that former President of Peru, Alejandro Toledo, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for collusion and money laundering.

The signatories to the 2016 Paris Accord on climate change agreed to limit ‘the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2.0°C above pre-industrial levels’ and to pursue ‘efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels’.