Corruption is Opposition’s whipping horse – “In vacuum of ideas, wild ideas of corruption fill a void” – Attorney General 

MINISTER of Legal Affairs and Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandlall has explained that while there are levels of corruption and that “no level of corruption is acceptable,” he contends that the topic has become a political weapon, exploited by the opposition.

During an interview conducted with journalist Shaun Samaroo on ‘Political Scope’ on the National Communications Network, he detailed that the opposition “cannot speak to the Guyanese people on issues of development, they cannot advocate and indeed they do not have a plan to adumbrate, to illustrate to the people, what their developmental agenda is for Guyana.” He added that they have not been able to inform the populace on “how they will build our economy, how they will provide jobs for our people, how they will alleviate poverty, how they will attract investment. In that vacuum of ideas, wild ideas of corruption fill a void.”

Measures implemented by PPP/C

Minister Nandlall pointed out that people must examine what the PPP/C government has done to ensure that corruption is kept at a minimum and to bring in transparency and accountability to governance.
He recalled that before 1992 “there was absolutely no policy on how procurement of goods and services was being done at the level of government indeed, it was done in an ad hoc way without any transparency whatsoever, no one knew who used to get what contract, by what principles, and by what criteria contractors were selected.”
He explained that against this dubious bequeath from the PNC, one of the very first things that this current ruling administration did was to, in 1993, present in the Parliament, a White paper for discussion on the procurement of goods and services at the level of the government and for government agencies, as well as agencies of the state. He reminded that the document was thoroughly discussed by the National Assembly and was unanimously approved.  This, he emphatically said, was a turning point in how things were done in Guyana.
According to the AG, herein began a process whereby “We, the PPP/C, fixed terms, process and procedures outlining how every single contract for the procurement of goods and services must be done and determined that these must be done by way of a public, transparent process.”
He noted that this position obtained until 2003, when there was the enactment of a comprehensive Procurement Act which established a National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), insulated from government/political interference, and manned by public servants at every level. “There is absolutely no political contamination of the operation of the Board, in terms of its functioning or in terms of who comprise that board.”
The AG detailed that with this new background, every single tender is done publicly, an advertisement is placed in the newspaper, inviting persons to apply for whatever the project is, there is an engineer’s estimate, giving an estimate of the project. He declared that all the bids are received and opened at a date, which is advertised, and then the bids are publicly opened, and the press is invited, members of the public are invited, the contractors who have an interest are obviously invited.  Following this stage, the AG pointed out that the bids are opened and read out aloud and then sent to be evaluated by an evaluation committee.
Here too lies another anti-corruption measure, the minister explained, as “the evaluation committee is comprised of persons randomly chosen from the various ministries and are public servants.” This group will then evaluate those bids, and the minutes of those evaluation meetings are recorded and posted on the Procurement and Tender Board website.
When that process is finished, a recommendation emanates from the evaluation committee, in relation to which contractor is suitably considered for the award, and the reasons. This, for him, clearly eliminates any kind of collusion. At this point, all the documents, along with the report, are sent to Cabinet for a “no objection as per the legislation”. Then when that ‘no objection’ is obtained, it is sent back to NPTAB, where the award is made, based upon the recommendations of the evaluation committee.
In a succinct manner, the AG clearly stated that “this is how procurement is done in Guyana; there is legislation in place that outlines in great details how goods and services are procured for government or state agencies, and including many semi-autonomous agencies like the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).”

TRANSPARENT PROCESS

The all-important point for the minister is that “every cent of public money is spent only after utilising that transparent process. If a contractor feels aggrieved by a decision taken at the evaluation committee, or by any aspect of the procurement process, he has a legal right to challenge the process right there at the NPTB. He also has a right to resort to a special court, the Constitutional and Administrative  Law Court, which is a court that is established to specifically hear and determine constitutional law and public administration matters. This is a specialised court, which only hears those types of matters, where you get a quick and speedy hearing. These matters include allegations of constitutional violations by the State or officers of the State including Ministers of Government and more importantly it hears cases concerning allegations of abuse of power and authority by any Government Minister or public officer. This court has been established nearly a decade now.”

PERCEPTION VERSUS REALITY

Minister Nandlall explained that the opposition and their followers have managed to find a ‘whipping horse’ and that is corruption and “it is what the people like, people buy scandals they like scandals and corruption smacks of scandals. Unfortunately these allegations are never supported by any evidence of worth. After all, the intent is to create sensational news.”

AG Nandlall revisited a case of hardcore evidence where corruption does exist… “five rice milling complexes were sold sometime around 1990, along with thousands of acres of rice land …to a Surinamese company, registered in Guyana to do business, because there was no policy in relation to how you do public procurement and how you dispose of state assets… the agreement of sales for those rice milling complexes which were then owned by the government, …the agreements of sale were signed by the Confidential Secretary to President Desmond Hoyte.”
Another instance recalled was that Mr. Carl Greenidge’s contretemps were exposed, as he was forced to defend the sale of a house to him. This house was sold to him by Guyana Stores, at the time he was the Finance Minister, and this for the minister was an egregious anomaly, as “I never knew that they sold houses.” However, AG Nandlall declared that “Mr. Greenidge must be the only person in Guyana, who was able to buy a house from Guyana Stores.”
The transport, which is dated 1993, lists Mr. Greenidge’s occupation as Minister of Finance although he left government since October 1992.
There was absolutely no transparency in relation to these transactions.

SORDID PRACTICES and HISTORY

Minister Nandlall explained that these kinds of stories people will not read in the newspapers, “but that is scandalous- Guyana Stores selling a house, Office of the President selling rice mills.”
The minister explained that the prevailing systems of working were so corrupt, that the PPP/C started to put mechanisms in place, one of which is the aforementioned Procurement Legislation. Significantly government’s role in procurement in the Caribbean is now under review. Guyana is the only country in the entire Caribbean where the government plays such a minimal role in the public procurement process. “We (Guyana) have one of the more advanced procurement process in the English-speaking Caribbean.”
He pointed out that at the level of CARICOM; governments of the Caribbean are trying to come up with a common Procurement Legislation, which they want to implement in all the countries. “Guyana’s legislation has been reviewed, the Caribbean governments ironically, have rejected Guyana’s legislation, on the grounds, that the government plays too insignificant a role in the procurement process, and that they are not prepared to play that minimal a role that the Government of Guyana plays in the procurement process.”

AUDITOR GENERAL

AG Nandlall spoke on the matter of the Auditor General’s report. He went back to the time when the PNC was in government, from 1980 to 1992, and the entire tenure of the Minister of Finance in that government, Carl Greenidge during which he never produced an Auditor General’s report to the National Assembly.  According to the AG, “that is an indictment of such colossal proportion that this man, by that fact alone, should never be permitted publicly to speak about corruption, because he simply has no moral authority to do so.”
Proffering irrefutable logics and evidence, AG Nandlall detailed that the then Auditor General, Mr. Anand Goolsarran, publicly asserted, on more than one occasion, that he received instructions in writing, from the then Minister of Finance, the said Mr. Carl Greenidge that he (the then Auditor General) must not audit certain government agencies. What is very ‘unchallengeable’ is the fact that this was in writing, and “we have it archived at the Ministry of Finance. At that time, the Auditor General’s Office was a department of the Ministry of Finance, that is, it was a government department.”
In contrast, for the AG the PPP/C has injected great transparency and accountability, “from 1992, every single year 1993 onward to 2015, we have produced an Auditor General’s report, which is not handed to the government, but is sent to the Speaker of the National Assembly, for onward transmission to a Public Accounts Committee, which is chaired by the opposition by the rules of the parliament.”
He also pointed to the fact that this committee has now been empowered by this PPP/C administration “to summon before that committee, any minister of government, any official of state, any public officer, to answer any question, and to produce any document, in relation to matters contained in that Auditor General’s report, and this committee has the power to call in the police too, if it finds evidence of misappropriation of funds.”
For the AG, the PPP/C has great transparency and accountability, as it has removed the Auditor General’s jurisdiction from the supervision and scrutiny of the Minister of Finance and “we have created an independent office, insulating the functioning of that office, from any form of political or governmental interference.”
Again, the AG lamented, “These things are never highlighted, these were never in this country before, we put them, but the opposition would not highlight those things, because that defeats their arguments, they have found a very effective political weapon which is corruption, and they have a fertile place in some sections of the press, that give them this massive publicity.

DEBUNKING APPARENT FAVOURITISM

In debunking the allegation of cronyism, Mr. Nandlall explained that the PPP/C is a huge party, with hundreds of thousands of supporters, well-wishers, and therefore it is impossible and wrong for members of the party or for relatives of those in the party’s hierarchy, not to benefit from that which is available to every Guyanese.
“So if a relative of a PPP/C person bids for a contract, and he wins that contract, are you telling me that it is fair, constitutional and lawful, to deny him that ‘lawful entitlement’ because he is a relative of or a friend of a PPP/C member? It is not fair, it is not right, it is not lawful. They are citizens of this country, their support for our party is a constitutional right, a fundamental freedom, which they enjoy, and amongst the fundamental freedom which they enjoy is also protection against discrimination for their political views and or political associations.”
The benefits in Guyana, Minister Nandlall highlighted, are for all as “…we want a level playing field…all are entitled to everything that a citizen is guaranteed by the State. This applies to persons who support the opposition political parties as well. If a person gets a contract because of his political connections, that is wrong. This government has always protected that right, and will always continue to protect that right as we work to mould a system that creates fair opportunities for all.”

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