MINISTER of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, said on Wednesday that the process of calling out corruption is not just about shouting from the rooftop; but advised persons with relevant facts to seek the right channels and report instances of corruption to the agencies and authorities.

The minister made these remarks during the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance’s 2023 year-end press conference, which was held at its Queenstown office.

During the conference, Teixeira stated that there are constitutional bodies that deal with corruption, and as such, those agencies are protected by the constitution concerning their operations.

“If anybody feels that there is corruption and if anybody has a scintilla of evidence, they should use the mechanisms that are available to bring their cases forward,” she said when asked about allegations of corruption propagated in sections of the press by the political opposition.

Against this backdrop, the Minister stated constitutional bodies like the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), the Auditor General’s Office, and even the Financial Intelligence Unit are there, and reports can be made to them.

Giving background, she said that as a member of the opposition some years ago, she wrote the PPC on various issues with documentation on what was discovered at that time. One such issue she recalled was one concerning the awarding of a contract relating to a feasibility study for the Demerara Harbour Bridge in 2018.

“I documented what I found so I didn’t just go and say that there’s corruption,” she explained.

In gathering information, she indicated that the websites of certain agencies and gathering information from other sources played an important role in the information she submitted to the PPC, which then led to the commission presenting its report.

Teixeira stated that the report indicated that the former minister and cabinet acted unlawfully by providing and awarding an unsolicited tender, which the cabinet lacked constitutional authority to do under the procurement act.

Subsequently, the minister recalled that she then reported to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) and called for a full investigation into that matter, and later in 2021, the former Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson, along with the former General Manager of the Demerara Harbour Bridge, were charged.

As such, the governance minister said, “So the process of calling for corruption is not one of just shouting from the rooftop, its work, it is work and you have to be dogged at it and so, I can say very clearly as a member of the opposition I used that same framework that exists today that has not changed between 2020 and now to be able to bring to the fore what were the findings.”

To this end, she noted that one must recognise that constitutional bodies will make their decisions based on the laws and what they think is best.

“But again, facts, facts, facts. It is important to have facts, and so whoever is crying, whether it is opposition or anybody else, get your facts lined up and go to the correct bodies and to bring your cases,” she iterated.

Additionally, she said that it is any citizen’s responsibility if they feel that wrongdoings are going on to do the work and get it to the right forums and not just, “shout it from the rooftops.”

“When you doing that, all you are doing is creating an impression that may not be right and maybe that’s the intention in the first place,” Teixeira expressed.