Dear Editor
TIGI has taken note of a press statement from the Department of Public Service indicating that steps have been taken to improve transparency in the award of scholarships. The statement was published while we were making the final decision on our draft.
The importance and impact of scholarships necessitate fairness in their administration. There is no place and should be no tolerance for cronyism, nepotism, favouritism and other biases in such awards. It would be a flagrant betrayal of citizens and corruption if government scholarships are awarded based on friendship or connection to the government inclusive of, but not limited to, political ideology and party support.
An alarm was raised last year about the award of scholarships to two sitting ministers of Government to pursue doctoral studies. On the one hand, there is the governance issue about the appropriateness of officials with such pivotal roles dividing their attention between serving the people and pursuing studies. On the other hand, there is suspicion of impropriety in the awards. Neither of these points has been adequately refuted and TIGI remains concerned, especially about the accusation of impropriety.
The Guyanese society has long recognized that there was bias in awards of scholarships in the past. The accusation is that direct or indirect intervention from individuals in government occurred in some cases and this has eroded public confidence. We also recall the parent of one University of Guyana valedictorian going public that the government of that day had not even seen fit to recognise her for whatever reason, while by all evidence its scholarship programme had not ceased.
Bias in scholarship awards should be viewed with recognition that there is ultimately a cost to the public. Even when they are not funded by taxpayers, there is still opportunity cost to those who might be more deserving. Many individuals have applied for government scholarships on several occasions and have had to defer their dreams for many years. Some were less fortunate even though they were accepted at universities abroad. They obtained loans from commercial banks, family and friends to support their studies. Yet, others had to forego such ambitions altogether.
The situation in which two sitting ministers with such prominent roles in government, have been awarded scholarships by the said government appears as a continuation of suspected old practices. The President indicated in the January 20, 2017 edition of the Public Interest programme that he did “not know the grounds for these specific cases,” but said that “on the face of it, it is not a corrupt transaction.” The President was speaking here hypothetically for he could not be asserting that the particular awards were not corrupt, while admitting his lack of knowledge about the two cases. The public therefore remains understandably sceptical and a lack of corruption in the awards of the scholarships is yet to be substantiated.
TIGI calls on the government to enhance transparency and accountability of the scholarship programme by establishing rules to guarantee annual publication of the list of awardees along with some basic information about the individuals. This should include, but not be restricted to, qualifications of the individuals, the amount awarded and the institution and programme of study, without undue violations of privacy. We also call for articulation and publication of the evaluation and decision criteria for scholarship awards. An added benefit of this will be increased awareness of what is available and who can apply, which can potentially enhance the reach and impact of the programme. Finally, the government should make the scoresheets based on which the awards were determined available upon request as an initial step towards accountability.
Regards
Troy Thomas
President Transparency International