HOME Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee last Monday reported that the “I Paid a Bribe” website is being monitored regularly and certain information is subsequently extracted and passed on to relevant Government agencies for appropriate action. Rohee, also General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), was speaking at the party’s weekly press briefing at Freedom House, in Georgetown.
“From the reports I received, you have corruption manifested mainly with traffic ranks on the road, at the Transport and Harbours Department, at the wharves, stellings, and Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) at a lower level,” Rohee disclosed.
He said many of the manifestations of corruption that appear on the website are reflected with respect to corruption at a lower level of Government agencies and departments.
The Home Affairs Ministry last year launched the website, a user-friendly crime-reporting system in which persons making reports are not required to give their names. Information Technology (IT) Specialist, Floyd Levi, had said that the website is easy to use and it is for citizens to report their experiences of bribery and other forms of corruption where the location, time, date and number can be listed.
He added that the concept is derived from India, was launched in that country in 2010 and later spread to other developing countries to allow citizens to report instances of bribery and corruption for the police to act.