IT is not unfair to say that there are strong misperceptions about what constitutes corruption and appropriation of State assets for personal use. Whereas attention is being directed at the acquisition of two oil blocks by relatively unknown companies and of Pradoville properties, whereby former government officials, elected and appointed, have used their positions of power and influence to possess State assets outside of legal requirements and below market value, the problem is much wider.

Theft, embezzlement and misappropriation of State assets take many forms. Some include denial of revenue to the State through non-payment or underpayment of taxes, white-collar crimes, and evading the regulatory and oversight functions of the State as prescribed by law.

The axiom that there is no excuse for ignorance under the law, though not disputed, would be more meaningful should persons be aware what the law requires of them. Here, there may be utility in establishing an information reservoir, easily accessible, and understood by the public. It may be useful to advance some form of public education that includes delivery of literature, public-service announcements and Online access.

Laws such as the Integrity Act are vital to the process of holding public officials accountable; the principle of upholding ethical standards while in service to the people should not be trifled with. Chairman of the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU), Professor Clive Thomas, in his writings within recent years on the health of the economy, had referred to Guyana as a “criminalised State”. Thomas said that by 2006, capital flight had doubled to US$173M, and doubled yet again to US$575M by 2010. This is a staggering amount of money to have fled Guyana, and by extension its development, in just four years.

More and more each day, there is certainty of Guyana’s ‘El Dorado’ potential in oil and gold. The value of these resources on the global market and to a country’s economy comes with long tales of skimming off the people’s wealth to the benefit of a few. These resources have also created wars to either access them or maintain them, and see the inequitable distribution of wealth among the people.

It is not unusual in societies such as Africa and the Middle East, where these resources exist, to see the vast wealth and opulent lifestyles of those in the corridors of power, or in close proximity to such power, as the masses live in squalor, deprived of basic necessities. Leaders, in maintaining the inequity, are often brutish and known to deny citizens their rights and freedoms.

Executives of multinational and transnational corporations that invest in the identified resources of these countries are not shy about in engaging in enticing or collaborating with indigenous government officials in unethical practices in the furtherance of their business interests.

Robbing the people of what is theirs is to also rob them of their growth and development. Where the people’s assets are not used for their benefit, they are denied quality education, healthcare, public transportation, road infrastructure, liveable wages/salaries, and health and longevity, to name some.

All of the above and more are vital in addressing, through recognition and putting systems in place, to not only stamp out the theft of State assets, but also hold those responsible for such misconduct to account. At the same time, it ought to be said that the people’s support in recovering what are duly theirs should not allow this pursuit of justice to be blinded by racial, political or other non-incidental considerations.

It ought not to be forgotten that those who sought to compromise the State’s integrity were doing so out of selfishness and a refusal to comply with their civic duty under the law. As it is in other countries, where these persons would not have been allowed to disregard the law, and as citizens, our support would be with that government for enforcing the law; likewise, it helps by taking similar approaches to ensure law, order, growth and development in Guyana.

Recovering the State’s assets is a Herculean task, equivalent to disentangling a knotted rope, strand by strand. But if this is what is required to return to the people what rightfully belongs to them, it must be pursued. The longest journey begins with the first step, and where steps are being made, as in the instance of SARA to investigate the awarding of oil blocks, this must be supported by all.