In a stand against corruption, the Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc (TIGI) staged a march from the Umana Yana to the Public Buildings yesterday.
The march is an annual demonstration by the group to commemorate International Anti-Corruption Day, which is observed on December 9th.
“…It’s coincidental that it’s taking place when the Leader of the Opposition and the National Assembly are engaged in a debate on one of the most significant budgets ever presented in this country, post-independence and probably before independence… but we’re not here to discuss the politics of the budget, we’re here to talk about corruption. And we think corruption still exists to a large extent in this country,” said attorney Christopher Ram, who is a member of TIGI.
Although President of TIGI Troy Thomas emphasised that the demonstration was not geared toward a particular issue, but to recognise the existence of corruption and present TIGI as an advocate in the fight for transparency and accountability, Ram had much to share on apparent corrupt practices in the country.
“…We’ve seen it—the Homestretch development project, where you’ve got one politician shifting us to another and you can’t get the truth about this whole thing. And now the minister saying, ‘oh, I passed—this is a private company—I passed the records on to a government agency.’ What kind of nonsense is that? That’s an insult to the intelligence of this country. And I am disappointed to have heard it from Dr [Rupert] Roopnaraine because he is the co-leader of the WPA and I’ve always considered myself a friend of the WPA.”
Ram also voiced his opinion on the recent Sussex Street drug bond controversy that saw Members of Parliament leaving the budget debate on Thursday evening to conduct an impromptu visit to the site to ascertain whether the Minister of Public Health George Norton’s claim that medication was being stored there was legitimate.
“That has been a series and a litany of lies. I mean, it was almost demeaning for our National Assembly to have to go out there to prove a point that a minister is lying. That’s such an insult to the intelligence of this country,” Ram stated. “So he doesn’t deserve to be a minister and all those people who supported that ought to be out. This is unacceptable. The more resources are diverted to corruption, the more harm it does to us and the more people will be taxed to finance those things,” he added.
The theme of this year’s Anti-Corruption Day is ‘Corruption: An impediment to the Sustainable Development Goals.’
In United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s message for the day’s observance, he called for a reaffirmation of the commitment to end deceit and dishonesty, which threaten the 2030 agenda and efforts to achieve world peace and prosperity on a healthy planet.
