-latest Transparency International survey
Guyana still ranks among the most corrupt countries, slipping three places on the Transparency International (TI) 2008 Corruption Percep-tion Index (CPI) released yesterday.
In a survey of 180 countries, Guyana fell to 126 with a score of 2.6 out of 10. It is the lowest ranked English-speaking Caribbean nation on the list and the second lowest ranked Caricom territory behind Haiti.
Based in Germany, TI is a non governmental organization working to root out corruption. The CPI measures the perceived levels of corruption among public officials and politicians in countries, based on different expert and business surveys. Four surveys were used to determine Guyana’s score.
President Bharrat Jagdeo has consistently criticised the number of indicators that have been used to assess Guyana in the past as well as the sources responsible for the data.
For the Caribbean, St. Lucia ranked highest at 21 with a rating of 7.1, followed by Barbados at 22 with a 7.0 rating and St. Vincent and the Grenadines at 28 with a rating of 6.5. Cuba (65), Suriname (72), Trinidad and Tobago (72), Jamaica (96) and the Dominican Republic (102) also received higher ratings.
Guyana shares its ranking with seven other countries: Indonesia, Honduras, Ethio-pia, Uganda, Libya, Eritrea and Mozambique.
Professor Johann Graf Lambsdorff of the University of Passau, who carries out the Index for TI, said an improvement in the CPI by one point (on the 10-point scale) increases capital inflows by 0.5% of a country’s gross domestic product and average incomes by as much as 4%.
Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand shared the highest score on the index at 9.3, while Haiti at 1.4, Iraq and Myanmar at 1.3 and Somalia at 1.0 were deemed the most corrupt.
In an official statement, TI said persistently high corruption in low-income countries amounts to an ongoing humanitarian disaster that cannot be tolerated. “In the poorest countries, corruption levels can mean the difference between life and death, when money for hospitals or clean water is in play,” Huguette Labelle, Chair of Trans-parency International, was quoted as saying in the statement.
TI said whether in high or low-income countries, the challenge of reigning in corruption requires functioning societal and governmental institutions. Poorer countries are often plagued by corrupt judiciaries and ineffective parliamentary oversight, it said. On the other hand, wealthy countries show evidence of insufficient regulation of the private sector, particularly in terms of addressing overseas bribery by their countries, and weak oversight of financial institutions and transactions. “Stemming corruption requires strong oversight through parliaments, law enforcement, independent media and a vibrant civil society,” Labelle said. “When these institutions are weak, corruption spirals out of control with horrendous consequences for ordinary people and for justice and equality in societies more broadly.”
TI also said that in low-income countries, rampant corruption jeopardises the global fight against poverty and threatens to derail the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to its 2008 Global Corruption Report, unchecked levels of corruption would add US$50 billion or nearly half of annual global aid outlays to the cost of achieving the MDG on water and sanitation. As a result, it is urging a redoubling of efforts in low-income countries, where the welfare of significant portions of the population hangs in the balance. It is also calling for a more focused and coordinated approach by the global donor community to ensure development assistance is designed to strengthen institutions of governance and oversight in recipient countries, and that aid flows are fortified against abuse and graft.
The Govt is not corrupt:::Common sense must tell you this:::The TI report should read like this…those people who pay bribes to police officers…immigration officers…passport officials….drivers licence officials..the list can go on and on…Bribes bribes and more bribes is corruption to the gill…Some of these people were inherited from the previous PNC Govt….But when this Govt tried to kick them out the street protest gets into full gear…Those who offer bribes and those who ask for bribes to do their jobs should be jailed…Bang…No corruption.
Evileyes, I am on your case again. You want me to provide you with evidence that key government officials are involved in plethora of surreptitious acts? People need to take their heads out of the sand and stop pretending that all is well. We know PNC was corrupt they are gone, this government is just as bad or worse.
and the blame game continues.
Evileyes u always comparing PNC time with the PPP time u just dnt get it the world is so advance now i think u r still livin in the past ……no body never say that the weren’t corruption in PNC time …..but under the regime that u r defendin the are blatant……i’ll b waitin on u mr evileyes when the RK case finish i’ll b waitin to c if u r an optomistic kind of person who also has a change of heart ….
When will you begin to accept truths, or even confess them. Unless persons can accept or identify wrongs they are doomed to failure. Maybe you like the prominent others cant seen to figure wrong from right so corruption is common to your everyday existance. Stop blaming the past, we are in the now. Sorry you cant see progressively.
It’s statement like this that cause Guyana to be in this situation, we have a serious problem, we cannot see the wood for the trees, it’s not the PPP or PNC fault, it’s our fault we the ppl, we put them in power for fear and fake loyalty, at our detriment, foreigners will not want to invest in this country “only drug dealers and criminal” like one blogger stated. Guyana it is time stop this….pro PPP….pro PNC or…..pro African ….pro Indian, why not be PRO GUYANESE and stop being the jokers of the region, only we can change this, they don’t care.
evileyes u cant even c further than ur nose …there is absolutely no way u can defend the gov on corruption for example…..police merai taped in a conversation allegedly makin a deal with a drug dealer admitted to it have u heard back anything abt that….the minister who gun butted the kid then drove his car on have u heard anything abt that …..do u know what the small man would say if a police or a minister can do it n get off i can do the same it goes to show if u r not in a certain bracket with the king pins dnt get caught. …..Juilet-Holder-Allen was sent on perminent leaf just for carryin out her duties as a magistrate ……
i wonder where the usa came in this? but no,world curruption dont count…….
satish you can spin this one all you want but the bottom line the world
sees guyana as a corrupt country and would be hesitant to do business
with guyana, guyana will only attract one type of business people thieves,
narco traffickers, swindlers,pimps,casino gamblers and underworld thugs
i guess that is what you would call development in the next twenty years.
eh ! what’s up with the ” guyana will only attract one type of business people ” blah blah blah ,,, GUYANA did not have to attract those kinds of career professionals ,, ! they have been there !….
if u take ur head out of the sand ,, u will probably ,, — like the reat of the world –,, see them,, here’s a hint ,, after the nat’l purse ran dry as did everything else ,, world opinion helped to kick them out in ‘92,,, and in the next 20 years ,, if they are not totally silenced their ridicule will leave them stck in a time continuum !…..
Torbo are you sure you are not referring to good ole USA in your comment.
If USA score 7.3 out of 10 for a population of 301,139,947. Then 81,307,786 people corrupt.(i.e 27% of 301,139,947) thats plently more than the population in Guyana. So which country has more corrupt people?
I dont know about you,but i am a Guyanese and proud of it.My quality and personality is not determined by any statistic ,favourable or un-favourable coments in the media or schools of thought. I will always stand proud and continue to display my countrys flag.WE may have left those shores a long time ago ,but in our private moments we cherish being who we are.
kabaka. Please print the article and show it proudly to your Canadian friends and work mates. Make some flyers and proudly distribute them while holding the Guyana flag. This is a dark moment for all Guyanese. We are advancing to the rear. We are now competing with Haiti for first place.
You’re a joke. Living in another naton after you ran from tumbledown Guyana, and look what you are saying.
Agreed kabaka…quote “WE may have left those shores a long time ago ,but in our private moments we cherish being who we are.”
Agreed.
But will you NOW FACE REALITY?
1. bribery and corruption are now the norm
2. are those characteristics to be cherished?
3. nostalgia is fine, but where the existential conditions have radically
changed, your nostalgic comments should be cautioned with
” in my time …etc etc ”
You get it ?
That is REALITY CHECK
You still have that name on your car plates?
Russia score 2.1
Zimbabwe score 1.8 where GY would have been if Burnham and the PNC was still in Power.
For your info, you can spin bowl all you want .This goevrnment was voted in to implement change. The change was suppose to be for the better not the worse. If you read the two key words mention was SLIPPING and FELL. Guyana slipping three points ,fell to 126. ……………………………………………… That is not the change they were voted in for.
Are you for real SPIN BOWLING, Burnham has been dead for 23yrs; the PNC has been out of power for 16yrs, what are you talking about?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am offifially sick and tired of you people beating on Burnham and the PNC. Look the PNC has been out of power for a long long time. Dont blame them for whats happening now. As the saying goes “gi jack he jacket”
In an escapable hole. Of no return. Incidentally, I recall the time when the PNC gave this same despot Mugabe $100,000 a year for freedom fighters,when he was at the said time oppressing Guyanese.Now this Mugabe crony of his turns out to be more racist,incompetent,and did the same thing like the PNC. Bankrupt the nation.Again,you cannot allow people with no credibility,economic base, or no track record of competent management to run a nation.The result is disaster. as we all witnessed.
I am sure most of us are not surprised with TI’s findings, then there are other who are going to ask for evidence to prove. I personally know of relatives of high ranking members of the government, given scholarships to study (not in Cuba) at universities in US, India, England etc. As soon as they graduate they just migrate to Canada or the US, they do not serve this country, they only serve themselves. This is just a spec of sand on top of the proverbial mountain.
In the PNC times, people with the ‘palm tree card’ were placed ahead of the line, now you just whisper CUP and oh boy, things become easier for you. It is no better now than then, nepotism is the word of the day. Our county is CORRUPT,CORRUPT, CORRUPT!! , period.
ehehe you forget to mention that we had guy-lines in the previous govt..how many pnc govt ministers sons and daughters did like wise? come on John you know better than that….
Evil, you drunk or them eyes gon blind. I said you have you card in those days and you are placed ahead in the line, you call it Guy-line, same line. Evil, you seem to be grabbing at anything without reading. I know you have a horrid name but you ent no devil. Let us work together and rid our country of all these crooks. You can’t fight this battle from behind that maple leaf, you need to come here and don’t bring any cup with you.
Like the article says countries with poor economies have a strong tendency to also be very corrupt — that’s why the focus of the government should be to strenght the economy and I don’t mean selling out its riches to foreign countries. Guyana needs to find away to make itself profitable from its natural resources.
there is a thing called capital, unless we we sell it out to the industrial nation they will not invest, where they did and now try to restrict their operations they are call terrorist. or anti whatever,
its all about economic control, we cannot developed unless we can come up with our own capital, one project at a time, the world bank only entrap these poor countries to more devastation, they only invest in projects that will be destroyed in a few years and 90% of the finance is returned to the industrial countries.
By The Way:
Russia scored 2.1
Zimbabwe ( could have been the PNC) scored 1.8
the usa scored 7.3. what a laugh. ask the people who lost their money from the collapse of fannie mae, freddie mac, aig, lehman brothers,enron, etc.
SN is domiciled in Guyana.
Is SN corrupt or anyone at SN guilty or prone to corruption?
If not and it is true then decanadianCarlVeecock and the throng can celebrate.
Well Omkar,if you don’t like SN, why are you reading it?
Why are you waisting time make multitudinous posts on the SN web site it you don’t like reading it?
Seems that you got nuff time on yuh hands!
And what is this comment about whether SN is prone to corruption?
It nat meke sense.