| By Desilon DanielsIf the new coalition government is serious about fighting corruption,Seattle Seahawks Apparel Clearance, it will need to do so from the ground level, said recently inducted President of the Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. (TIGI), Calvin Bernard.TIGI President, Calvin BernardIn an interview with this newspaper, Bernard explained that corruption must be dealt with “from the ground up, in every single sector”.According to Bernard, while the focus should be on each sector, some areas will obviously require more focus than others. One such sector, he said, was the Natural Resources sector. He said that it is paramount that sectors such as the Natural Resources sector are corruption free as they bring in significant money for the country.“They need to look at those sectors and look at the way in which they are governed to see where there are vulnerabilities for corruption or where corruption already exists. Then, they need to devise plans,” he said. He explained that corruption has become so widespread that it has begun to infiltrate all sections of the country and in turn had drastic effects on the populace.“Education, health – all of these things have been so infiltrated and corrupted that regular people cannot access these services and goods that they should be able to access as citizens of Guyana. That’s because the systems themselves have been corrupted so as to benefit particular persons,” Bernard stressed.He emphasised that there is therefore need to look at all areas, right up to the Office of the Presidency.“We saw recently that in the OP, people were being paid one place and working at the Office of the Presidency, or there were persons working at Ministries where they are receiving pay but it’s unclear what they were actually doing,” he pointed out.He went on to say that, naturally, persons will begin to question to what extent the entire system, and the way in which things are administered, were corrupted. He added that corruption could occur for a number of reasons, including for private benefit, personal gain, or the benefit of a specific group.“If you have sufficient monies you can get by with almost anything,” Bernard added. However, he said, this should not be so and instead represented corruption.“If I got into an accident on the road and damage public property and someone that is in the upper levels of society or someone who is far more affluent gets into an accident and also damage public property, then we shouldn’t be treated differently; we should be subject to the same things. If it’s available that the simple solution is replacing or repairing, then we both should have that option. If it’s a must that I have to go to court, then we should both have to go to court. It shouldn’t be the case where if you got the money you can go off scot free and if you don’t then you spend some time in the lockups before finding yourself before some magistrate,” Bernard said.He further said that issues such as the Public Procurement Commission, the Integrity Commission and the Anti-Money Laundering Bill were still concerns of the TIGI. However, he said, the body will also be expanding its understanding of what corruption is to look beyond financial corruption.“We’re looking to broaden that understanding of what corruption is. Corruption might not just be about financial gains and corrupting financial systems but systems that look at the public access to goods and services,” Bernard said. |
