Guyana Focus
Corruption, Guyana’s systemic scourge, has permeated the very fabric of the society. In spite of efforts to contain it, corruption has remained uncontrollable under successive governments.
Accusations of corruption have reached a fever pitch as the country prepares for general elections, probably sometime later this year.
President David Granger’s promise of running a clean, transparent government has not panned out, even though he himself comes across as whistle-clean. His faith in his administration is probably shattered in
the wake of a myriad of recent insinuations, accusations and allegations of corruption against several government ministers, departments and agencies. It must be recalled that Granger put his neck on the block in 2016, saying: “It is my view that corruption in Guyana is most widespread outside of government.” Previously, the President deflected blame for widespread corruption away from the government and onto the country’s private sector. He did not deny the existence of corruption within the government but laid the bulk of the blame on individuals and non-government organizations and entities.
As a result of recent developments, the opposition PPP, which was on the receiving end of accusations of corruption when in power, is now in a position to take repeated shots at the administration, which attained power on a platform promise of full transparency.
The fight against corruption in Guyana has now turned into a bitter political saga with the accuser becoming the accused - only that the accused, in almost all incidents, appear to be wearing Teflon suits that prevent allegations from sticking. Worse still is that those responsible for untangling the web of corruption have been accused of being corrupt, highlighting the pervasiveness of the scourge.
The local newspaper, Kaieteur News, sums up the problem thus: “Witness tampering. Evidence tainting and diluting. And at the end, obstruction of justice. Justice thwarted and denied, in an unending series of frauds and injustices that plague this tortured Guyana from coast to coast and at every rung in the ladder of this society. It is only part of the kitchen sink.”
The newspaper was referring to corruption at large but moreso, allegations of irregularities at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) established in 2004 to process all procurements above the thresholds laid down for the ministerial, regional, departmental and district tender boards.
Evidently, allegations of corruption at the NPTAB – ranging from bid tampering to hand-selecting contractors are still unfolding but the magnitude of potential cover-ups has garnered serious public attention.
Not much different from the massive investigation into allegations of corruption under the former PPP administration. Then, some 50 audits of various government agencies and institutions were completed over a 16-month period ending in August 2016 at an estimated cost of $133 million.
Following the completion of the audits in 2016, Khemraj Ramjattan, Public Security Minister was reported in the local press saying the audits were an embarrassment to the government. He claimed that crucial documentation to substantiate accusations against the former administration was missing and that individuals with knowledge about corruption were afraid to provide such evidence.
President Granger then noted that in many cases the forensic audits have not found sufficient evidence to proceed with criminal charges. He, however, claimed that the results offered his administration an opportunity to correct many deficiencies.
So far, the government has charged several former government ministers, including former President Bharat Jagdeo for alleged corrupt activities in land related transactions.
And in a pending development, the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) has indicated that more charges against former PPP/C officials are imminent but that the process will be long drawn out in both local and overseas courts.
According to Director of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA), Professor Clive Thomas, documents received from external law enforcement agencies such as Interpol, Homeland Security and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force show a massive scale of corruption and money laundering during the late 2000s to the mid-2010s.
Thomas noted that the information provided by the foreign agencies was being converted into evidence to build solid cases to recover cash and other properties locally and overseas, noting that about eight to ten cases could form part of the first batch of “strong” cases to be filed for civil recovery of state assets in keeping with the United Nations Convention on Corruption.
“We can’t recover state property in this country, believe you me, without fighting in the courts outside of Guyana so the fight that we engage in here is not a national fight. It’s a global fight. The wealth has left Guyana. It is deposited into accounts in places outside of Guyana and we have to find the means and the support that we need to get to those accounts to place the charges against the persons who hold Guyanese assets through some initial unlawful conduct and to try to recover it for Guyana,” Thomas is reported saying.
He added: “The standards that they seek are the standards of those organizations for the publication of data, not our standards. Our standards are going to be based on evidence that can be taken to a court and there is a difference between information and evidence so our task is to convert whatever information we get into evidence.”
But whether the results of any investigations or court cases would result in major convictions appear to be a distant probability. Part of the problem is that you simply cannot put the cat to watch over milk. The temptation is too great.
Incidentally, an audit of the financial records of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), a branch of the Guyana Police Force, has uncovered serious irregularities, including the falsification of records. The audit was ordered by the Police Commissioner in February following claims of grave mismanagement, which included the misuse of its operational fund. The audit is apparently still ongoing.
SOCU, which was established in 2014 on the recommendation of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), was intended to be a Police unit operating under the authority of the Police Commissioner, but with a close relationship to the FIU.
It was granted sweeping powers by the current National Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan, expanding its role beyond terrorism and money laundering to include participation in an organised criminal group and racketeering; trafficking in human beings and migrant smuggling; sexual exploitation, including the sexual exploitation of children; illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; illicit arms and ammunition trafficking; corruption and bribery; fraud; counterfeiting and piracy of products; environmental crimes; murder; grievous bodily harm; kidnapping, illegal restraint and hostage taking; robbery or theft; smuggling; extortion; forgery; piracy; insider trading and market manipulation; tax evasion and gold smuggling.
That’s a lot of milk to keep an eye on, enabling access to many sources of corruption. The bigger question is adequate supervision of SOCU itself.
The underlying problem is that corruption has become an accepted norm in Guyana. Wiping it out will take more than political change. For now, corruption is breeding more corruption.
Yasodra Singh, 54, of Lot 21 Canefield, East Canje, Berbice, was at home with her three grandchildren, aged 10 years, nine years and nine months, when the men invaded the premises.
The attack occurred around 9 am.
Singh’s daughter, Amrita Singh, 30, explained, that her mother operates a general store at the property, while she and her father, Andrew Singh, 55, sell at the Port Mourant Market.
She said her mother informed her that the first perpetrator entered the store and requested to purchase feed but shortly after changed his mind and requested a bottle of water. When the woman went to retrieve the bottle of water, the perpetrator made a phone call and then rushed behind her, “push her down and start kick her up and ask her for money,” the daughter said.
Two other robbers, who were masked and armed with guns, then rushed into the store from a car. According to the woman, the first perpetrator masked himself during the attack.
Singh noted that the men assaulted her mother while demanding that she take them to the upper flat of the house. “She had an apron around her waist and they manage to take that from her and one of the other two (perpetrators) place the gun to my son head and ask him for the money and he showed them where she would usually keep the money in a bucket,” the daughter said.
The men stole around $195,000 in cash as well as a quantity of phone cards, after which they hurriedly escaped in their waiting car.
The two strange persons reportedly visited the shop last week and acted in a suspicious manner. “They bought cigarettes then go out and come back and bought a lighter,” Singh noted. It is suspected that the men were surveilling the building.
‘B’ Division Commander Paul Langevine said police had launched an investigation but no one had been arrested as of the day following the incident. A police source, however, explained that investigators were on the hunt for a suspect from Cumberland Village, East Canje Berbice and also seeking to locate the vehicle used for the getaway, which is suspected to be a hire car.
Earlier last month, gunmen invaded a bar, located one street away from Singh’s business, and robbed the owners along with several customers of cash, jewellery, cell phones and a car. A man and woman from Cumberland Village, East Canje, Berbice, which is one village away from Canefield Village, were recently charged for that robbery and remanded to prison.
A ceremony held Monday saw the institution unveiling three-dimensional images of the project, which is being funded by the state’s portion of the proceeds from the Guyana Lottery Company. The expansion is being done to the tune of $50 million, with $31 million allotted for the infrastructure and $19 million for equipping the expanded facility, a release from the Department of Public Information (DPI) said.
A MoU was signed between the company and the Ministry of Public Health to facilitate the project.
“The MCH’s [Maternal and Child Health’s] objective is to provide the highest possible standard of culturally appropriate maternal care delivered in an atmosphere of trust and respect of human dignity and the expansion of the maternity wing provides us with just the opportunity to do so,” Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence remarked. She noted that there will be arrangements for high risk pregnancies and for women who experience complications during pregnancy.
It was noted that a review of the hospital’s maternity records showed that 8,324 admissions were made in 2017 and 8,277 in 2018, and as such, the hospital’s administration welcomes the expansion, as it will support the work of the unit.
“Because of the high amount of admissions and deliveries, we are constantly challenged to find in-patient beds, often particularly between the period September to February when there are more deliveries than often, we are challenged. Consequently, the board of directors and administration of the hospital decided to address this issue and it started way back in 2016 when this new wing was built and in 2018 last year, we did some internal renovations,” Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital, (retd) Brigadier George Lewis said.
These additional works to the hospital’s maternity unit complement corrective works previously done on the building, when the maternity wing was added at a cost of $350 million.
According to the Nadira and Indranie Shah Dance Troupe, Nrityageet 40, which will be held at the National Cultural Centre on May 3rd and May 4th, will be its final annual dance theatre production.
In a statement released on Friday, the Troupe said the decision was taken to discontinue the annual show due to a lack of sustained interest from the business community as well as the Guyanese audience’s “seeming preferences for glamour, glitter and the more popular Indian dance styles.”
It added that although the annual show will no longer be a regular feature of the Guyanese theatre offerings, the Troupe will continue training and performing upon request for other cultural stage productions. It added that associated performers, such as the Guyana Ramlila Group, continue on in full force, preserving their heritage and celebrating their culture. “We dance for the love of dance, the love of the arts, the love of theatre arts. Our grandparents and their ship family were producing Ramlilas in the Rice “factory” in Bel Air and Turkeyen, since they came in the 1800s. Costume making, male dancing, dramatic dance productions have been in the family for generations,” Nrityageet Director Dr. Seeta Shah Roath was quoted as saying.
According to the statement, the final production marks 40 years of remembering and celebrating, through dance, song, poetry and drama, the arrival of the first batch of East Indians to British Guiana on May 5th, 1838.
It noted that while the Shah sisters have been performing classical and folk dancing over 50 years, the first annual dance productions of Nrityageet, 1 and 2, were held at the Queen’s College Auditorium on May 5th, 1979, and May 4th 1980, respectively. Thereafter, Nrityageet was presented annually at the National Cultural Centre. In that time, over 1,000 dancers are said to have been showcased at Nrityageet.
The statement said the current Nrityageet cast includes a young cohort who have been working together for the past 10 years and their repertoire includes Kathak, Kuchipudi, Indian folk, filmy-folk and modern dance styles. These performers are also students of Nadira Shah Berry and Shah Roath and graduates of both local and international theatre arts programmes.
Additionally, the Troupe highlighted that Nrityageet has followed a path of diversity through dance and Guyanese of all ethnic origins share and perform Indian dance of different dance styles that are as diverse as its performers. The National Dance Company and National Dance School were also credited for their partnerships in training and performing as were the numerous dance teachers of the Indian Cultural Centre from 1976 to 2018.
In its 40 years, the Troupe’s statement noted, Nrityageet has received a number of awards for excellence in the arts. These include the “Icon of the Arts” award from the Theatre Guild of Guyana; Guyana’s national award, the Medal of Service, for “Sustained and Outstanding Contribution to the Cultural Mosaic of Guyana”; more than six Guyana’s Theatre Arts Awards, including for “Best Dance Production,” “Best Costumes” and “Best Set and a special award for 21 years of ‘Exceptional Diligence in the Pursuit of Excellence’”; the Madame Iffel Award of Barbados for “Best Dance Production,” and an award for ”Long and Sustained Dance Productions of Excellence” from the Guyana Cultural Association of New York. It was also noted that Nadira Shah Berry recently received an award from the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin for being an “Icon of preservation and promotion of Indian and Indo-Caribbean Dance, music, drama, poetry, and providing a forum for Cultural exchanges as well as cultural integration of dance and choreography.”
But Chartered Accountant, Anand Goolsarran hopes to remind of an issue that will affect the future of all citizens and the next generation to come. That issue relates to the lopsided ExxonMobil contract and the urgent need for it to be renegotiated.
In his recent writings, Goolsarran stressed that the contract has over-generous fiscal concessions and tax exemptions which ultimately shave away significant revenues from Guyana’s national purse.
Goolsarran said, “Ever since the Petroleum Agreement with ExxonMobil’s subsidiaries Esso, Nexen and Hess was made public, we have been calling for the Agreement to be renegotiated to ensure that Guyana gets a better share of the oil revenues which are expected to commence flowing in the first quarter of 2020.”
The former Auditor General continued, “Our assessment of the Agreement is that it is too heavily weighted in favour of the oil giant, especially in terms of royalty, cost recovery, taxation and profit sharing. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), there are too many loopholes in the Agreement that if not plugged, could result in Guyana losing significant amounts of revenue.”
He added, “The Agreement provides for Guyana to receive a royalty of two percent which is significantly below what other oil-producing countries are receiving…In countries where ad valorem rates are applicable, the rates vary from eight percent to 20 percent. For example, in Trinidad and Tobago, the royalty rates are between 10 percent and 12 percent while for the United States, the rate is 16.6 percent. Colombia’s royalty rates are between eight percent and 25 percent, while for Brazil and Peru, the rates are 10 percent and five to 20 percent respectively.”
Further to this, Goolsarran reminded that Guyana will receive 50 percent of the share of profits after deducting up to a maximum of 75 percent of recoverable costs from monthly revenues. He pointed out, too, that any excess recoverable costs are to be carried over to the following month.
Because of the difficulty in verifying such costs and perhaps, Guyana’s apparent lack of capacity and technical expertise to do so, Goolsarran said it was suggested that in any renegotiated agreement, the profit-sharing model should be replaced with a revenue-sharing one, as is being done in the case of India.
In the petroleum industry, Goolsarran noted that recovery costs are by far more difficult to verify compared with revenue.
On the basis of the foregoing arguments, Goolsarran reiterated his call for the contract to be renegotiated while reminding that even the U.S. Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch, recently stated that Guyana would be within its sovereign right to renegotiate the agreement if it so wishes.
where is law enforcement?
One gang, which sometimes numbers between five and six has been driving fear into almost everyone with their daring nighttime robberies on persons traversing the Stabroek Demico House and Parliament Building areas.
This new gang would seek out persons (particularly intoxicated men) inside the Demico House Rooftop bars, and elsewhere, and would observe their alcohol consumption and spending capacity. The members will then trail their victims as they leave the bars, and pounce on the unsuspecting prey.
At the right interval, the girl would rush up to the victim, grab his collar (maybe his pants) and feigning great anger (and even tears) demand money for sexual services she pretends she had provided.
Before the terrorized man can begin to fathom what is going on, the males would rush in, slap the victim and demand that the woman be paid for the sex she never provided.
The victim would then be relieved of cash and other values, and the gang would leave.
That aside, the public has become very fearful of male sex workers who have now taken up station outside the Parliament Building (close to Stabroek Demico House). They are working in unison with their band of male robbers as well.
As innocent citizens pass by that area at night, the sex workers will pounce on them openly robbing them of valuables. Every time this happens, they are well assisted by their male counterparts who are always ready to render assistance.
Sources are informed that these men are there for two purposes – aiding in the robberies and providing security if the sex workers are overpowered by their prey.
While the police must to be commended for their campaigns on the touts, one cannot help but wonder what they are doing about these brazen nighttime robberies?
On many occasions, people observed police walking around and passing the groups of criminals liming by the Public Buildings fence and not even stop to enquire of their reasons for being there.
Officers placed on the streets in many cases are just lackadaisical in their approach. Gangs are robbing people right under the walkway at the Demico House and police officers are sometimes just a few rods away.
For this situation to be rectified, it will take no-nonsense police officers with a sustained interest to rid the Stabroek area of of these criminal elements.
There are quite a few contributing factors that are visibly fuelling the activities of criminals in the city. Among those are the street styled parties that are allowed to run full-fledged on the bus parks and other locations.
The East Coast Bus Park becomes a large “Passa Passa Street Fair’ on Friday nights, creating congestion, and creating the perfect breeding ground for criminals.
It churns up bile in the stomach to watch police officers in uniform traversing in and out of the crowd without attempting to have them lower the music or do anything about the madness on this bus park on Friday nights.
The food vendors, pedestrians and commuters alike are very disappointed by the level of police protection in this area at nights, but would not dare intervene for fear of their safety.
Gambling continues unchecked just in front the doors of the Demico House (Sophia Bus Park area) right under the noses of police officers who operate on the bus park just close by.
Scores of riotous young men lime each night on the walkways of the Demico House Outlet… What are the police doing about it?
Gangs of men and women traverse the said areas each night, and so many fights break out.
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