Dear Editor,
Please allow me the opportunity to respond to a passionate letter appearing in your newspaper (SN April 13th, 2016), written by M. Maxwell and titled `Trusted Trader scheme is example of refusal to fight corruption’.
Mr. Maxwell in his letter articulates a number of concerns in an eloquent critique of a programme that is yet to be developed. As the Minister responsible for bringing this initiative to Cabinet for approval, I wish to reassure him that his angst is both premature and misplaced.
I am astonished by the vehemence with which he rejects the simple notion that some businesses can actually be trusted to honour their end of a transaction to the extent that it can be concluded minus some of the red tape.
Some of the unflattering terms used by Mr. Maxwell to describe this initiative include hare-brained scheme, fiasco, haphazard process, deliberately destructive government policy and nasty piece of preferentialism and favouritism.
The Trusted Trader Programme is not meant to be a total solution, but rather one of a series of interventions designed to make Guyana an easier and better place to do business.
Guyana has a significant informal economy in which far too many businesses are not playing by the rules that govern how they should operate. These businesses flourish by ignoring the laws, regulations and bureaucracy that constrain and frustrate legitimate businesses.
The Trusted Trader Programme is an initiative that the Ministry of Business wishes to explore in the interest of easing some of the unnecessary frustrations and financial hardships caused by a slow and inefficient bureaucracy that clearly does not recognize the importance of expediting its transactions with the business community.
There is nothing hare-brained about the Trusted Trader Programme. It is still in the initial assessment phase and will not be implemented without consultation. It is envisaged that a pilot will be run with only a few government agencies before the programme is fully implemented.
Mr. Maxwell’s fixation with corruption may have led him to believe that the primary purpose of the programme is to tackle corruption. He is mistaken. The primary focus of the programme is on business facilitation. However, reducing the time and complexity of government procedures will have the beneficial side-effect of reducing the scope for corruption.
The assertion that government will be using this programme to create a preferential programme for some select companies is unfounded; especially since there is an existing mechanism for doing precisely this – it is called Ministerial interference, and it was used extensively over the last few decades. The status of Trusted Trader will be granted based on clearly established criteria which will be made available to the public once the programme is developed.
It should be noted that the Trusted Trader concept is not a new one. The Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) programmes which are recognized by the World Customs Association and the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement are currently operational in sixty-six countries. Sixteen others have AEO programmes waiting to be launched and another twenty-two have other forms of related operational compliance programmes.
It is important to understand that the essence of the Trusted Trader Programme is active risk management. It will therefore enable companies which can demonstrate that they are “low risk” to enjoy more streamlined processing based on the reduced risk they pose to the system. This will also benefit government since it will make bureaucracy more efficient.
It is hoped that if the bureaucracy can be improved for a sub-set of qualifying businesses then, as more and more businesses become more and more compliant and join that sub-set, the improved bureaucracy would become the new norm. This will ultimately improve the ease of doing business in Guyana. The programme therefore relies on inclusivity rather than exclusivity for its long-term success.
Finally, I wish to emphasize that this programme is not intended as a substitute for any anti-corruption measure(s) being implemented or contemplated.
Yours faithfully,
Dominic Gaskin
Minister of Business
