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Govt. afraid to implement corruption laws

“A lot of big officials will go to jail” – Harmon

“Government is afraid to implement pertinent legislation which could see the end of alleged corruption among public officials, since it could mean a lot of them would be going to jail.”
This opinion was expressed by APNU parliamentarian Joseph Harmon.

APNU MP
Joseph Harmon

Harmon was commenting on the recent US State Department Report on Human Rights which focused on the level of corruption and transparency in Guyana. The report accused the government of not implementing the corruption laws effectively.
According to Harmon, the report strongly supports APNU’s position on the implementation of corruption laws.
“They don’t want to effectively implement laws in Guyana, because the implementation will mean that a lot of the corruption will come to an end and a lot of people, a lot of big officials will go to jail,” Harmon told Kaieteur News.
The report also criticized government’s inability to properly set the Integrity Commission, which Harmon said is another indictment on the administration. According to the APNU MP in other countries where there are Integrity Commissions they are fully operational and active.
“In other countries a proper report is taken to the President. However in Guyana, because of our political structure, the information goes to the President and he sits down on it and does nothing,” he said.
Harmon opined that there is the need to have these commissions restructured so that the reports could be laid in the National Assembly or something of that nature.
“They are given certain powers of investigation so that if they submit reports they ought to be able to independently, in the commission, enquire if a public official, from being a tenant, somehow becomes the owner of several properties,” Harmon posited.
He said a further indictment on government’s part to compound what the report is claiming about implementation is the fact that the Financial Intelligence Unit, out of 800 suspicious transactions, only sent one report to the Director of Public Prosecutions’ Chambers.
Over the weekend the report which was released claimed that although the laws of Guyana provide for criminal penalties for corruption by officials, Government did not implement these effectively.
Corruption, according to the report, remained a widespread public perception involving officials at all levels, including the police and the judiciary. Even the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators have assessed that Government corruption was a serious problem.
Even though under the Constitution there is the Office of the Auditor General, Public Procurement Commission (PPC), and the Integrity Commission which all have mandated roles in the area of government transparency and accountability, two are yet to be established.
According to the Report, the Office of the Auditor General scrutinizes the expenditure of public funds on behalf of Parliament and conducts financial audits of all publicly-funded entities, including donor-funded entities, local government agencies, and trade unions, and reports to the National Assembly.
It noted that the work and effectiveness of the Audit Office remain limited, since Government may or may not act on the discrepancies noted in its reports.  Moreover, the Constitution has called for the establishment of a PPC to monitor public procurement and ensure that authorities conduct the procurement of goods and services in a fair, transparent, competitive, and cost-effective manner.
There has been significant public criticism of the present system’s ineffectiveness in awarding Government contracts in an equitable and transparent manner.
Under pressure from Opposition parties in Parliament, the Government promised to establish the PPC by June 2012; however, it has not done so to date.
The Report stressed that there is no law which provides protection for public or private employees who make internal disclosures of evidence of illegality or corrupt practices in corporate governance.
Public officials are subject to financial disclosure laws and are required to submit information about personal assets to the Integrity Commission, but there is no clear indication when the Commission will actually be functional.
In June 2012 the National Assembly approved a Government motion that members submit annual declarations in keeping with provisions of the Integrity Act, but compliance was uneven, and the Commission had no resources for enforcement or investigations.