TRANSPARENCY International (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank based in Berlin. Its main objective is to highlight perceived corruption in nation-states by way of a Corruption Perception Index (CPI) which is compiled annually. Transparency International is an umbrella organisation with over one hundred national chapters of which Guyana is one of them.
The organisation is a non-empirical database, a fact that needed to be taken into consideration by those inclined to attach much weight to its findings. This view was expressed by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira in response to a ranking of Guyana for 2021 which showed a score of two points lower than in 2021. The country went down marginally with a score of 39 and a ranking of 87 out of 180 countries in the most recent Corruption Perception Index (CPI) Report (2021), even as the country tops the list of countries that have made significantly positive improvements over the years. In fact, Guyana has been identified as one of the better performing countries in terms of transparency and accountability in recent years.
One is left to wonder as to how a country can make significant improvements in terms of corruption and transparency over and still move up on the corruption perception index. That is for Transparency International to explain but it does raise some questions regarding the objectivity of the criteria used to measure perceptions of corruption in any given country. And as pointed out by Minister Teixeira, for a country the size of Guyana, only a few individual opinions were solicited and the fate of the country determined by that handful of individuals.
In other words, there is the risk of subjective influences in the ranking process which may or may not be an accurate reflection of the situation. In all fairness to the organisation its scores are mere perceptions which however, can be seized upon to make political capital by opposition elements.
Like it or not, we live in a highly politicised society and it is not too difficult for subjective influences to find its way into supposedly objective and unbiased surveys of the type being undertaken annually by Transparency International. This, however, is by no means an attack on the work that international body has been doing over the decades to highlight perceived corruption. But such reports cannot be taken as sacrosanct or infallible, especially when seen against the background of genuine attempts that are made, as in the case of Guyana under the PPP/C administration to reign in corruption. President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali has been consistent in his efforts to stamp out corruption in the country and has repeatedly said that under his administration there is no place for corruption and that his administration would obey the laws and the Constitution of Guyana.
Even before he took over the mantle of President, he indicated his desire to stamp out corruption in the country which was rampant under the previous APNU+AFC administration. “I can assure you, of working to strengthen our institutional capacity to improve the system of governance, making Guyana more open and transparent, creating avenues for greater public involvement in the government processes, opening up myself to questions that the public may have on the work of government,” the President had assured.
There is no such thing as a corruption-free country but it is the extent to which governments make genuine efforts to reduce corruption and strengthen governance and accountability systems that really matters. In this regard, the current PPP/C administration has not been found wanting. Only recently, the government moved a motion in Parliament to join the Commonwealth Association of Public Accounts Committee aimed at ensuring that the country benefits from a more advanced anti-corruption framework. Guyana is a signatory to several international conventions that address anti-corruption efforts including the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption.
Guyana under the PPP/C has recorded a number of solid gains in terms of accountability and transparency. It was the PPP/C that established the Integrity Commission in which all senior government officials have to declare on an annual basis their income and expenditure statements. It was the PPP/C administration that strengthed the Office of the Auditor General institutionally in order for it to deliver on its constitutional mandate to submit annually the Auditor General’s Report to the Speaker of the National Assembly.
It would be recalled that for twelve consecutive years under the PNC administration, no Auditor General Report was submitted to Parliament. It was not until the PPP/C took office on October 5, 1992 that the Auditor General’s Report was submitted on an annual basis which allowed for a thorough interrogation of the public accounts by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
And even as the country has now become an oil producing nation, the PPP/C administration has been taking all necessary measures to strengthen accountability and transparency in the sector with the establishment of a Board of Directors drawn from several agencies including the National Assembly and the Private Sector to manage the spending of oil revenues. The board effectively removed the sweeping powers of the Finance Minister as was the case under the previous legislation hastily put together by the then APNU+AFC legislation.
These are important steps in the direction of transparent and accountable governance for which the PPP/C administration must be commended.
