Rohee claims PPP has in-house measures to deal with corrupt members

-    Calls Harmon a “mimic man” General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Clement Rohee claims that contrary to popular belief that the Party condones corruption and pets those perpetuating it, there are measures in place to weed out corrupt and inappropriate behavior.

PPP General Secretary, Clement Rohee

Several members of the PPP have been accused of being involved in corrupt practices, and Transparency International has listed Guyana as the second most corrupt country in the Caribbean. On Monday last, Rohee sought to explain that his party has its own way of dealing with corruption. Rohee’s statement was made in response to comments by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Member of Parliament, Joseph Harmon, that the PPP has a long way to go in dealing with corruption. Referring to Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s ethical method of running her Cabinet, Harmon told Kaieteur News that Guyanese leaders need to take a page out of her book. Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar, who has been described as a no-nonsense leader, has been cleaning out her Cabinet of officials deemed unfit. The majority of casualties were as a result of corrupt and immoral practices. Harmon believes that Guyana would have been much better off if the leaders of the current PPP administration had policies similar to those of Persad-Bissessar’s. Harmon stated that maybe if the political Ministers of Guyana knew that they would have been sanctioned for inappropriate behavior; corrupt practices would not have been so rampant in Guyana. Last week saw the resignation of yet another Trinidadian Minister, Anil Roberts.  The former Minister of Sport’s resignation came after severe pressure was placed on him. Last Thursday, Persad-Bissessar said that at just the “hint of corrupt practices,” she ordered an independent audit to be conducted into a Life Sport Programme which fell under the purview of Roberts. The audit confirmed that things were indeed not the way it was supposed to be with the programme. In further responding to Harmon’s utterances Rohee reverted to calling him (Harmon) a “mimic man,” while completely dismissing accusations that the Party turns a blind eye to corruption. He said that the PPP has methods of dealing with cases of any inappropriate behavior displayed by its members. He added that the Party prefers to engage in self-criticisms as opposed to ‘airing everything out.’ Asked specifically how the government deals with ‘shady’ characters, especially when they have been tainted by corruption, Rohee said he cannot speak for the government simply because the question was being posed at a PPP press conference. This is despite the fact that he had, just a few minutes before, answered questions in his capacity as Minister of Home Affairs.

APNU Member of Parliament, Joseph Harmon

When asked if President Ramotar ever discussed the wrong doings of government officials with him, Rohee said yes. He however, refused to divulge any information on this. Rohee told the media that Harmon’s comments were baseless and that’s the end of it. He advised that other questions on the issue be directed to Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon. President Ramotar is still to take action based on the NCN fraud report. The Marriott Hotel project still has more questions than answers. And this year, Finance Minister Ashni Singh spent $4.5B without the approval of the National Assembly. Then there was the Internal Auditor with the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority who was sent packing because he unearthed fraud and recommended that the Chief Executive Officer, Lionel Wordsworth, be sanctioned. These are some of the less than transparent practices that have contributed to the findings by Transparency International which rates Guyana as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International for 2013 has found that Guyana has slipped lower than the previous year giving rise to a perceived increase in corruption under the Donald Ramotar Administration. In the Caribbean, Barbados is rated 15th with a score of 75 while Jamaica and Trinidad are tied at 83rd with a score of 38. Guyana however, is tied with Bangladesh, Kenya and Ivory Coast at 136th with a score of 27. In 2012 Guyana scored 28 points. Guyana is second only to Haiti which scored 19. The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. A country or territory’s score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 -100, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 100 means it is perceived as very clean. A country’s rank indicates its position relative to the other countries and territories included in the index.