The informal or underground economy has been the source of tremendous speculation and political controversy. Some folks see the narco-economy as synonymous with the underground economy. Gold smuggling is often excluded from the discussion, as well as the incomes not reported for the purpose of escaping from paying taxes. State asset recovery is often conflated with the underground economy (see KN 01/06/2016 “Guyana’s underground economy accounts for $188B”). Yet another example of mixing up several forms of corruption is the newspaper report: “Guyana was losing over $300B annually through corruption under PPP” (KN 16/02/2017). No thought was spared for the fact that gold production – and the under declaration – has diverse political representation as one can infer from the 2017 EITI report.
Perhaps conflating these different forms of corruption provides the justification for establishing a politically rent-seeking agency like SARA. In later essays I will explore how politics influences business investments.
