Anand Goolsarran

Introduction It is rather unfortunate that a public spat erupted over a statement allegedly made by the Auditor General.

Last week, the Open Government Partnership held its 6th Global Summit 2019 in Ottawa, Canada.

Corporate reporting focuses mainly on financial information that does not give a full picture of an organsation’s true value for the benefit of investors and other stakeholders.

A recently released report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is a cause for serious concern for all who care about the state of our planet and its future well-being.

Last week, we examined the 2017 Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI) Report which was published last month.

Increasingly, the media landscape is a very difficult terrain to navigate on its own, but it is even more dangerous when members of the media are attacked and muzzled in the execution of their duties. 

ExxonMobil recently announced its 13th discovery of crude oil resources in Guyana’s waters, taking its total discovery to date to more than 5.5 million barrels of oil equivalents.

I have been heartened in my short amount of time here that other political leaders, in government, the opposition, other political parties, also indicated that they will respect [the Caribbean Court of Justice] ruling and there will be a peaceful reaction to it.

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has announced that it would no longer be part of the 19-member U.S.

The Canadian parliamentary system is said to honour the idea of responsible government as one of its key principles.

If the current political controversy is about the control of the anticipated oil revenues and continues to escalate, we would have failed the first test in our attempt to avoid the resource curse.

With 72 hours to go, it is still possible in the national interest for the President and the Opposition Leader to agree to convene a sitting of the National Assembly in order to avoid the looming constitutional crisis and a blow to democracy now staring at us.

Things like rule of law, democracy and you know, competence and facts; those things are not partisan, but they also don’t happen automatically.

In a previous column, we had referred to a statement from the Private Sector Commission (PSC) that the Chief Justice’s ruling remains intact until it is overturned by a higher court and that it expects the President and his government to respect and honour the ruling by calling elections before 21 March 2019.

Transparency International (TI) last week reported that the Maldives police arrested former President Abdulla Yameen for alleged bribes and kickbacks in a massive corruption scandal estimated at US$80 million involving leasing islands and reefs.

[Sustainable Development Goal] 16 recognises that building peaceful, just and inclusive societies that provide equal access to justice and that are based on respect for human rights including the rights of development requires effective rule of law and good governance on all levels, and are transparent, effective and accountable to institutions.   United Nations Office in Guyana Last week, we suspended our monitoring of events since the 21 December vote of no confidence, to give coverage to the controversy surrounding the decision to increase the threshold limits for Requests for Quotations and restricted tendering.

The delivery of the decisions by the Chief Justice demonstrates the independence and integrity of the Judiciary in protecting the Constitution and upholding the rule of law.

The timing of government’s increase in thresholds for restricted tendering should be questioned given that the Cabinet should have resigned with the December 21st passage of a no-confidence motion against the government, former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran has said.

With many democratic institutions under threat across the globe – often by leaders with authoritarian or populist tendencies – we need to do more to strengthen checks and balances and protect citizens’ rights.

But ‘tis a common proof,                                                                                         That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder,                                 Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;                                 But when he once attains the utmost round,                                 He then unto the ladder turns his back,                                 Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees                                 By which he did ascend.                                                      William Shakespeare in ‘Julius Caesar’ Last week, we examined the presentations of the speakers at the recent launch of the A New and United Guyana (ANUG) party.