Shadow of corruption

One of the underlying motifs of former PPP/C administrations was the persistent cry of corruption whether via procurement, kickbacks or questionable wholesale deal-making with cronies that stuck to these administrations like leaches. The charge of endemic corruption, which it was said that Freedom House and its governments were fully aware of, led to the dramatic resignation in 2012 of party executive Ralph Ramkarran after nearly 50 years in the PPP.

Just over a year into this PPP/C administration there are already troubling signs which President Ali must look at carefully or face the risk that corruption and its spectre could easily undermine the credibility and effectiveness of his administration.

The Ministry of Agriculture is now the locus of two inexplicable deeds where even after its usual bluster and fulminations it has convinced no one of the propriety of its actions. Indeed, independent investigations should be launched of both.

The first, of course, was the infamous issuing of two trawler licences supposedly to a fisherman who remains unknown to the fishing community here and in Trinidad and it further remains unknown as to what use these licences have been put. The illegal issuing of the licences had first been exposed by the Guyana Association of Trawler Owners and Seafood Processors. The Association would later abandon its activism no doubt after its key constituents were placated by those in authority. Such is the quality of advocacy in this country.

It remains the case that the licences were illegally issued and possibly to a straw player for use by some other person. The Ministry of Agriculture has to be held fully accountable for this. President Ali must not believe that incidents such as these are not being chronicled and that his administration has escaped repercussions.

There is now the matter of the steel sheets retendering which the same Ministry of Agriculture has found itself in even greater discombobulation and dissembling. For months the letter pages of the media and social media had been filled with references to shenanigans about the tendering. Those who complained were fully convinced that the retendering was intended to favour a particular supplier.

Perhaps lacking any real grasp of the procurement act and its requirements, when challenged by media reports on the retendering, the Ministry quickly sought to place itself above reproach by claiming in a press release on Monday that it was the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) which had initiated the retendering. This notion was quickly put to rest by the NPTAB in an interview with Stabroek News on Tuesday where it

was pointed out that it was the procuring agency, in this case the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) of the Ministry of Agriculture which would be the initiator of such a process. Having no doubt gotten wind of the fact that the NPTAB was putting itself in the clear, the Ministry of Agriculture quietly withdrew its press release on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, in conversations with Stabroek News, both the Chairman and CEO of NDIA, Lionel Wordsworth and Frederick Flatts respectively denied having anything to do with the retendering. It therefore left the Ministry of Agriculture as the source of the decision-making. Yesterday, the Ministry issued a new press release, quite different from the first, essaying an explanation of why the various tenders were issued. It admitted to a third tender without the annulment of the second. The ministry’s press release should be carefully scrutinised by the procurement authorities as there are clearly problems with the entire process and bidders

would have good reason to be concerned about the rectitude of proceedings.

Ultimately, President Ali will have to be the one to stamp his imprimatur on clean, corrupt-free governance. However, this would be impossible without the institutional checks and balances against corrupt behaviour. More than a year into the PPP/C term in office, two key bodies are handicapped: the Public Procurement Commission and its tribunal and the Integrity Commission. Without these two important bodies fully functioning, corruption will grow into a major problem particularly with the expansion of the oil and gas industry and there will also be the view that these institutions are being deliberately suppressed. The President must act.