THE seven-part debate series on corruption, carried live on the National Communications Network (NCN), ended Sunday evening on the topic of institutional corruption; and there was an offensive utterance from Alliance For Change (AFC) member Moses Nagamootoo about President Donald Ramotar.

Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, took umbrage at the remark, “Look who we have as a President today,” by Nagamootoo in his closing remarks at the debate. The minister called for the remark to be withdrawn.
Member of Parliament Manzoor Nadir and Trade Unionist Carvil Duncan were part of the debate, exchanging perspectives on the topic of institutional corruption.
The government representatives, Minister Singh and MP Nadir, defended policy initiatives in institutions to get rid of corruption.
The opposition member claimed that their efforts are not enough.
Arguing that there were failures under the PPP watch, Nagamootoo alluded to the dilemma with the winding up of Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO), in which sugar workers’ National Insurance Scheme (NIS) funds were locked.
He was reminded that the circumstances under which the insurance company found itself were regional in nature, and should not be regarded in isolation as a problem caused by the Guyana Government.
Nadir labelled the aforementioned argument as mere dishonesty; and despite attempts by Nagamootoo to butt in, the former labour minister reminded him that hundreds of other individual investors had assets in CLICO.
“You can’t stand here and say that NIS caused a dishonest act by investing in CLICO, that they knew CLICO was going to collapse,” Minister Nadir said.
In 2009, the government approached the High Court, obtaining an order placing CLICO under judicial management in an effort to protect policyholders and pension funds in Guyana, including the NIS. A Commissioner of Insurance was appointed judicial manager of the local company, in accordance with the Insurance Act of 1998.
Minister Singh, during the debate, argued that the Commissioner of Insurance at the time performed in the best way possible to align the company in conformity with the laws prior to the collapse regionally.
He also argued that the government had long recognized the need for strong, independent supervision of the financial sector, given its importance to the economy; and he chronicled the numerous pieces of “comprehensive” legislation that have been put in place as safeguards.
At this point, Nagamootoo sought to redefine the meaning of the term institutional corruption by pointing to extra-judicial killings and the Roger Khan saga.  Nadir responded that his (Nagamootoo) remarks were the usual rantings of the nitpicking opposition.
The AFC member made reference to the state department report on corruption in Guyana to corroborate his argument, even as the government representatives begged credibility from such reports.
“We’re going to pick up a publication here, hand a publication there, and use whatever part of it we see as pertinent to our own argument… If there is so much widespread corruption, I say we would have seen it all over,” Nadir said.
The reference to remarks on corruption by former Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran and Cheddi Jagan Jr (Joey) were not enough to convince the government representatives on the debate that opposition groups have done a good job at exposing the issue on live national television.

The Finance Minister highlighted a typical example during the debate, where Nagamootoo demonstrated “corruption of the truth,” when the AFC member took offence to some comments advanced in the section of the programme that were unfavourable to him.