-being used as pawn to influence international community, Jagdeo says

TRANSPARENCY International Guyana (TIGI) came under fire from Vice-President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo for its silence on dozens of documented corruption scandals involving the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC).

While speaking to reporters on Friday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Jagdeo called out the TIGI for turning a blind eye to the alleged corruption committed by the coalition while in government.

He said that this was evident during the 2020 elections fiasco when the coalition attempted to rig the elections. He added that the party is now “playing the victim.”

“They will get a supporting group of NGOs to criticise the government in writing reports and hope that somehow the international community, as erroneous as those reports are, they would influence opinion-making and policy in those countries in relation to Guyana,” Dr Jagdeo said.

The report in question is the 2019 report published by TIGI covering the period that the APNU+AFC held office.

“They come in new formulations, they’re sometimes new configurations, but they’re still there. The same old players of the past and they’re at it again. But it’s not going to work now because we’re going to be more aggressive on calling people out and we’re going to make sure that the international community sees these bodies for what they are and these individuals.

“Until now, we’ve had silence from the TIGI that submitted a report in 2019, which said that the APNU stopped a parking metre scandal when we know that it was the PNC [People’s National Congress] in control of the City Hall that was the centre of this scandal and that [Ronald] Bulkan, as the Minister [of Communities] gave approval for its introduction, and that it was only because of the battle of civil society that it was stopped,” Dr Jagdeo said.

Citizens of Guyana are now left with a series of rusting parking meters spread across the downtown area.

The remnants of terrible decision-making at the local government level by the APNU-dominated council still threatens to leave Guyana with a large legal bill, since the contract for the parking meters was abruptly brought to an end under the APNU+AFC government, sparking a legal battle with the company contracted to deliver the meters.

In commenting on this, Jadgeo said: “But the TIGI submitted a report to Transparency International saying that the APNU had stopped that. We know that the 2016 contract…APNU hid that contract…Then the TIGI wrote the international community and in their report said that APNU had released this contract,” he added.

The Vice-President further explained that the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), civil society, the media and other political parties had to “fight” for the release of the contract.

He shared his belief that the TIGI has been led to believe the narrative about corruption under the PPP/C.

He pointed out that his party has compiled a list of about 75 “corruption scandals” documented under the APNU-led government, where ministers and senior officials were implicated, but yet TIGI is mum.

“They were silent on a long list of corruption scandals…. 75 scandals from their first week [in government] to the last days that they were in office, he said.

Another case involved millions of taxpayers’ money being paid to a private company for the construction of D’Urban Park.

Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, in his latest report on how efficiently taxpayers’ money is being utilised, was tasked with a special audit on the construction of that facility.

A private company named Homestretch Development Inc. (HDI) was created to execute the project which included the construction of several wooden stands. As of December 31, 2017, Sharma said sums totalling $1.150 billion were expended.

According to the Auditor General, payment vouchers to support expenditure incurred by the ministry totalling $70.610 million were not produced for audit examination. As such, the completeness, accuracy, and validity of this amount could not be determined.

“They started a week after they got into office collecting money illegally, telling us they didn’t need public money to build the stadium. We ended up footing a bill of over $1 billion. $600 million unaccounted for in the Auditor General’s report,” he said.

“…from the beginning to the ending of their tenure, I can fill in the scandals every week that they had. But the TIGI was silent on that, totally silent. That’s why I said it’s [APNU+AFC] the most venal, corrupt government that we’ve ever had in our history,” the VP said.

TIGI according to its website was formed “out of the concern for the level of corruption that was perceived to have existed in the Guyanese society.”

It was incorporated in November 2010 as a non-profit organisation devoted to the promotion of good governance, transparency and greater accountability, and assisting in the fight against corruption.