GUYANA, now in the post-People’s Progressive Party/Civic(PPP/C) administration period of governance, has since been privy to a brand of hypocrisy that is conveniently egregious for its purveyors’ new-found understanding that the nation’s various procedures and laws must be punctiliously followed; that failure to observe the latter conveys evidence of wrongdoing.

These pronouncements are made by former high-ranking officials of state, who had been very much present and been part and parcel of the day-to-day administration of a country that had descended to levels of state criminality in which every public service department became part of very grave financial improprieties, as used to be illustrated by the many annual Auditor General’s Reports.

The coalition-ordered audits confirmed the criminal scandal and its scope of what took place in Guyana. The interesting features of these auditor general exercises and results, were their clear and unambiguous identification of the desecration of the standard financial procedures, from which flowed questionable financial payments that were not supported by proper proof of documentation. Numerous overpayments were common, with very few efforts to reclaim same; questionable methodology of awarding of contracts, and other financial venalities that became the masthead of a new understanding of governance.

It is instructive to note that these serious breaches were not investigated and continued year after year. Such a breakdown certainly led to the institutionalised culture of unaccountability that became a perfect cover for deliberate acts of financial impropriety.

This is what is being discovered by the Public Accounts Committee(PAC) during its current sittings, at which officers from the administrative regions especially, have been appearing to answer, not only for their stewardship of public finances, but also issues pertaining to their respective regions that have arisen from the Auditor General’s Reports.

In its many official enquiries, departures from procedures and questionable payments have been found, for which there have been conflicting answers as to their occurrence. This anarchical state of affairs should not be surprising, given the culture that had been allowed to permeate, grow and develop for over two decades. It would seem that there is an attempt to convey the impression that these serious observations and transgressions have only begun as from the coming to government of the coalition, A Partnership for National Unity+ Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC). We find this as attempting to gain cheap political mileage from a situation that needs clear directions and remedies for whatever discrepancies that are flagged by the Auditor General’s Reports, which engage the committee’s attention.

Now there has been an announcement from the PAC’s chairperson that persons appearing before the committee will have to do so by oath. Naturally, we ask, why this rule had not been instituted during the PPP/C administration. Of course, we support such a measure, since it is proper and meant to remind public officers as to the seriousness of their responsibilities; their personal honesty and integrity; and propriety. But we discern the measure as one of political convenience.

What has been confronting the PAC is the continuation of questionable practices that have had their genesis in a gradual degradation of systems in the last PPP/C administration. Many of the perpetrators who have developed expertise in irregularities, over the years, are still within the system and have continued their ways that are criminal in every way and not in the best interests of Guyana.

In supporting this view, we refer to a Kaieteur News, April 08 article, captioned, “PAC recommends sacking [of] compromised accounting and engineering officers.” This is in relation to Auditor General’s Reports for 2012, 2013, 2014. The article stated in part, “all point to one thing – the financial system is awash with dishonest accounting and engineering officers. They need to be removed”.

It must be reminded that the PAC is a parliamentary bi-partisan body, the business of which is the seminal function of overseeing public money and how it has been expended. Where there are indeed serious breaches, then it has the right to pronounce on same, offering solutions/remedies, and other appropriate measures. But political showboating and convenience are not part of its functions, as well as attempts to turn its meetings into one of political partisanship, by attempting to introduce matters of a political nature that are rightly the subject of the National Assembly. The Honourable Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, sounded this reminder at one of the committee’s sittings.