Accountability Watch

One in four people in Africa, or approximately 130 million people, pay bribes to access services, such as health care and education, according to the tenth edition of Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) – Africa.

In our article of 15 July 2019, we referred to several international scandals involving companies that have been audited by the Big Four (KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PWC) and the possibility of these firms being blocked from undertaking future audit work in India.

India may be blocking the Big Four (KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PwC) from rendering audit services to clients in that country because of several major scandals involving entities for which they are the external auditors.

The Ministry of Finance recently issued a circular to the heads of all budget agencies to begin preparations for the 2020 Estimates of Revenues and Expenditures.

On 18 June 2019, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) handed down its decisions on two matters that were referred to it for a ruling.

Yesterday was World Whistleblower Day, the observance of which was to raise awareness of the role of whistleblowers in fighting corruption and maintaining national security.

Before beginning today’s article, we invite readers to view a BBC documentary to be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlTXRWMYpzQ&feature=youtu.be

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. Many

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.