Fixing State-owned corporations

WITH information coming to light that many State-owned organisations are rocked by revelations of conflict of interest, malfeasance, negligence, and greed, His Excellency, the President appointed a special technical team comprising Mr. Christopher ‘Kit” Nascimento, Public Communications Consultant; Mr. Christopher Ram, Chartered Accountant and Attorney-at-law; Mr. Nigel Hinds, Certified Public Accountant and Mr. Sasenarine Singh, Financial Consultant, to immediately conduct a “Rapid Financial and Management Assessment” of some 19 State-owned entities. What was reportedly found in most instances was an unprecedented situation of systemic failure because the policymakers under the David Granger administration seem ignorant of what constitutes good corporate governance.

Under Mr. Granger, there appeared to be a disconnect between the practices of good corporate governance and actual performance and how key members of the inner circle were rewarded. In many instances, board members within the Granger cabal, caused a situation where they were allowed to function either officially or unofficially as senior management which is a total violation of good corporate governance. As is now being brought to the nation’s attention, the actions by these chosen few were primarily intended to raise their personal asset value rather than create value for all the shareholders of these agencies – namely the people of Guyana. In the final analysis, the system was “gamed” to inject financial inefficiencies using techniques such as not disclosing pertinent financial information promptly.

The tenure under Mr. David Granger is a life lesson to all future governments in the philosophy of how not to run a country. What is being discovered today is that this period under Mr. Granger was one that was plagued with falsified information, that was generated to mislead the real owners of these assets – the people.

It was heartening to hear, His Excellency, President Dr. Irfaan Ali, in his inauguration address, committing to right these wrongs. His Excellency committed to running the country in such a manner that no one will be left behind and to bring greater accountability to the process of governing the country. In His Excellency’s words “From this day forward, we must – each of us – become our brother’s and sister’s keeper, ensuring that in our journey to progress and prosperity, no one is left behind.”

What history has taught us is that under the PNC Government before 1992, we have been some experiences that were steeped in this sort of executive bullyism that cause Guyana to become uncreditworthy and technically financially bankrupt. That model failed and that is why it is shocking where we have ended up after a second wave of the PNC rule, this time under the Granger-led APNU+AFC Government.

Give how far the world has advanced with technology and good governance, there is enough evidence being unearthed by the several technical teams working with the new Ali administration to prove that Guyana has not joined this global wave. The preliminary evidence illustrated that Guyana has gone backwards over the last five years with regard to good governance. Despite the world moved forward on ideas like greater internal control, more robust systems of checks and balances, under Mr. Granger there is a preponderance of evidence to prove that structural corporate governance failures occurred on most of the state boards. What was even more disheartening was that the Office of the Auditor-General was being sidelined and consistently being ignored.

Guyana is now at a new juncture and we all must redouble our efforts to ensure that the idea of professionally managing all state assets must be adhered to and anyone who is found violating the procurement laws of the nation must be made an example. Information is coming to our attention that there are many instances of abuse of the procurement system under the Granger administration using the sole sourcing conduit to justify kickback to politicians and their underling from service providers. Right now, information is coming to our attention of some strange happening in the procurement system at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation and we use this opportunity to call for a full forensic investigation of that organisation.

Many in the incoming government have told this newspaper that what they thought they would have met is far from what they met at the handover date. Many have confessed that they were shocked at how bad the system has deteriorated since 2015 when the last government departed office. Many have admitted that it was like Pandora’s Box, once they started to dig below the surface, it continues to get worse. All of Guyana is encouraged to join His Excellency the President, Dr. Ali, in fixing this inherited mess.

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