Accountability Watch

A former Minister accused me of being unprofessional in discussing in one of my columns the report on the forensic audit of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Ltd (NICIL).

Corruption has disastrous impacts on development when funds that should be devoted to schools, health clinics and other vital public services are instead diverted into the hands of criminals or dishonest officials.

The Stabroek News recently carried an article which centred around a legal opinion that was given on the applicability of Article 216 of the Constitution to the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Ltd.

Last week’s article completed our “stock-take” on where we stood in terms of public financial management.

On 28 December 2015, we carried an article on the above subject but we were unable to complete it because of space constraints.

Last Thursday, the National Assembly considered and approved two financial papers that were presented by Finance Minister Winston Jordan.

The year 2015 is about to come to a close. It is a time when business organisations are conducting physical stocktaking exercises to identify and value their inventories, other assets and liabilities for the purpose of closing their books and preparing their financial statements.

Before proceeding with today’s article, I refer to the comment by parliamentarian Juan Edghill in connection with the forensic audits being conducted at various government agencies and departments.

In 2014, Cabinet appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana National Industrial Company Inc.

The International Anti-Corruption Day will be observed on Wednesday, 9 December.

On Wednesday, the Government signed a Memoran-dum of Understanding (MOU) with Fedders Lloyd Corporation for the resumption of the design, construction and outfitting of the Specialty Hospital at Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara.

So the Amaila Falls Hydro Project is back on the front burner.

Before beginning today’s article, two issues raised recently in the print media are worthy of comment: the extension of Baishanlin’s State Forest Exploratory Permit (SFEP); and the Presidential Inauguration expenditure.

There must be no compromise on integrity, no allowance for arrogance, no room for violation of mutual respect; there will be no sacrifice of our values on the altar of political expediency…No one is exempt from the measure of value based leadership…All my considerations are character driven.

Last week, we began a discussion of the Auditor General’s 2014 report which was laid in the National Assembly two Thursdays ago.

It was recently drawn to my attention that I had made a mistake in a number of my articles when making reference to the Public Corporation Act of 1988 and that there was an amendment to the Act which I did not take into account.

Corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on society.

Before proceeding with today’s column, the recently announced 50% increase in the salaries of Ministers has created, quite justifiably, a tsunami of criticisms and condemnation from all sections of the Guyanese society.

  Before proceeding with today’s article, a few days ago, it was reported that Transparency International released its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2014.

Last week’s article on the role of the Permanent Secretary and Regional Executive Officers (REOs) in our system of public financial management generated some positive reactions.