Accountability Watch

We must set our face sternly against corruption and extravagance. We cannot have a Cadillac style living with donkey cart economies.

Last week, we discussed the Court ruling on the excess expenditure of $4.554 billion that the Minister of Finance had authorised without prior parliamentary approval.

Last Friday, two news items caught my eyes. The first was the Chief Justice’s ruling that the Minister of Finance violated the Constitution by authorising withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund without parliamentary approval, thereby causing excess expenditure totalling $4.554 billion to be incurred during the first half of 2014.

Before we begin our final in a four-part series on the above subject, I refer to the comments of the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on our two recent articles on the Fibre Optic Cable Project.

Last week, we began a discussion of our country’s performance on governance, transparency and accountability in 2014.

Last year around this time, we carried three consecutive articles entitled “Governance, Transparency and Accountability: Priorities for 2014”.

Last week, we began a discussion of the Government’s ICT programme which effectively commenced in 2010.

Good and honourable intentions, vigorously pursued to finality, are more likely to produce the desired outcomes.

Last week, we discussed the 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index which rated Guyana at 124 out of 175 countries surveyed with a score of 30 out of 100, the lowest in the Caribbean, except for Haiti.

Democracy and accountability are the twin sides of the same coin.

On 29 November 2014, the Government announced a five per cent increase in the wages and salaries for public servants earning in excess of $50,000 per month and an eight per cent increase for those earning less than $50,000, retroactive to 1 January 2014.

Last week, we discussed the reason the President cited for proroguing Parliament as his belief that the Parliamentary Opposition wanted to disrupt Government’s business by forcing a debate on their no confidence motion.

So the President has made good his threat to prorogue Parliament!

Some years ago, when I was at the Audit Office, a letter was mistakenly sent to the Attorney General.

This is our third in a series of articles on the above subject.

As I was about to prepare this article, two news items caught my eyes.

In Guyana, public procurement accounts for approximately $150 billion or 70 per cent of the national budget.

Last week’s article provoked quite a reaction from two bloggers who feature every day in the Stabroek News.

On 27 October 2014, citizens across Ontario, including the cities of Toronto, Mississauga and Brampton where most of the estimated 100,000 Guyanese in Canada live, will be electing new Mayors and City Councillors.

Another controversy has erupted in relation to the design and construction of the Specialty Hospital at Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara.