Allegations of corruption should be investigated by independent body

Dear Editor,

My attention was drawn to your editorial “Corruption Scandals” (Aug 21). Corruption is widespread but it is not being exposed. There is hardly any transparency in government contracts or expenditures of money. And when exposed, incidents of misappropriation or corruption are not investigated. There is no accountability. No one is brought to book for allegations of theft or misuse of public funds.

It has been months that we learnt how Chinese national, Su, would get approval for projects or contracts. Guyanese are not so fortunate to get land or state contracts except those with the kind of connection that Su has.

One private company, for example, whose name I won’t publicly cite for fear of being sued, recently registered as a small company without any resources, (first registered on March 24, 2020 and re-registered March 30, 2022 as sole owner), and with hardly any equipment, got billion dollars’ contracts supplying pumps and doing infrastructure work for NDIA. How is that possible?  There are dozens of more qualified contractors with years and decades of experience and a lot of equipment. Why could they not get contracts? Was there nepotism in awarding of contracts? Were there draw backs? There are dozens of similar cases of questionable contracts across all Ministries.

All allegations of corruption should be investigated by an independent body of individuals of integrity and repute.

Sincerely,

Jillian Adams