From time to time, various Ministers, as Heads of Government Departments and officials of the Private Sector, have spoken out against corruption, which exists in both governmental and private sectors. Full and concerted action against corruption was, however, only seriously initiated when the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Hon. Gail Texeira, held an anti-corruption workshop in partnership with the Private Sector at the end of last November. Both Government and the Private Sector expressed their intention and aspiration to eradicate corruption.

They pointed out the effects of corruption, all of which were negative, including the slowing down of governmental and private sector activity, leading to inefficiency and increased costs in all business transactions. In all this, national development was retarded. It weakens the moral fibre of both parties to a corrupt transaction, and this human degradation increases with the passing of time. Governmental spokespersons stressed that eradicating the culture of corruption, which they link with human rights, would result in a clean society. The Private Sector, on the other hand, felt that the court system was too dilatory and that the laws affecting corruption needed to be solidified and modernised. They argued that the punitive aspects of the law needed to be greatly strengthened. If these reforms were effectuated, corrupt persons would cease to assume that they could escape the net of the law with impunity.

The words of Minister Gail Texeira highlight the rejection of the culture of corruption: “What has to be developed consciously is a new culture that is not based on the view held by some that you have to grease someone’s hand to get something done, where the systems work transparently and fairly, and people trust them to do so. We need to have a new culture where people feel if they want a passport or put in a tender for a contract, they don’t have to grease anybody’s palm. This requires, at all levels of the Public Service and Private Sector, zero tolerance for persons offering or asking for bribes.”

Ramesh Dookhoo, speaking on behalf of the Private Sector, called for the quickening of court procedures and the consolidation of anti-corruption legislation, thus making it more effective: “You need to take all these pieces of legislation and have holistic anti-corruption legislation in Guyana, which makes it easier for the Police, the Regulators, and everybody else to take you to court and be successful. The penalties would have to be harsh so that you wouldn’t even want to risk it.”

Though exorcising bribery and other forms of corruption from Guyanese society may appear to be a difficult uphill task, in reality, it is not. Until the beginning of the 1960s, bribery and corruption were unknown in the Public Service and the Private Sector, and this culture of cleanliness and transparency in business dealings was the norm. The induction of corruption was strangely done by the post-Independence Guyanese State, which was undemocratic. When democracy was restored in the 1990s, the successor democratic state was unable to focus its full attention on the elimination of corruption, which had taken fairly deep roots and continued. The present serious effort initiated by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, the Private Sector, and various NGOs to restore Guyana to its former corruption-free status is likely to succeed since the majority of Guyanese people and institutions wish to exorcise bribery and corruption from their society.

To quicken the pace of permanently eliminating bribery and corruption, we suggest the following: In addition to the great efforts made by the State and Private Sector, we propose that in all training programmes mounted by both the State and Private Sector, a 45-minute session on corruption should be included. The Heads of Government departments should keep greater surveillance over their offices and be willing to enquire into any complaint or suspicion of corruption. At the primary school level, some reading material nurturing honesty and anti-corruption should be included. In the days of the British Empire, the Royal Readers, used in primary schools, promoted patriotism, honesty, and anti-corruption with much success. Likewise, this culture could be revived today.