Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Dec 12, 2021 News
Kaieteur News – The history of petroleum licensing and contracting transactions in Guyana presents extraordinary exposure to corruption.
This is according to the Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. (TIGI), along with other Civil Society members.
The body, in a missive on the event of International Day Against Corruption, on Thursday explained that the theft of resources of astronomical value, can occur in as simple a way as the deliberate failure to enforce a law where such a law exists, or where it is deliberately misinterpreted in favour of private financial interests.
“Since the benefit of such an action is conferred upon the private interests as a benefit in kind, it is as easy in its conceptualization, as it is difficult to trace. This kind of corruption is referred to as an implicit transfer. The history of petroleum licensing and contracting transactions in Guyana presents extraordinary exposure to this kind of corruption,” the group said.
It was keen to note that corruption not only undermines development, but also creates a society where economic and social growth is trampled by greed. Corruption also reinforces economic inequality, as the underprivileged in society are not given a fair chance to access opportunities and resources.
In this regard, the members of the group, including the President of TIGI, Frederick Collins, along with Compton Meerabux, Veda Ram and Darshanand Khusial warned that the only protection against such corruption is for the society to remain vigilant.
“It is for that reason that we encourage our fellow Guyanese to be on guard and to examine new laws being drafted for weaknesses and loopholes that have the potential for misinterpretation and to demand that the laws, as passed, be followed to the letter,” the body related.
But in addition to ensuring there are no loopholes in the proposed laws and ensuring that those constituted are enforced, it was noted that another measure to curb corruption is to ensure public servants are paid a “livable” wage to reduce the temptation of accepting bribes.
Further, it was suggested that stricter punishments be enforced on corrupt officials and an awareness campaign be launched on the effects of corruption, and how it negatively impacts society and economic growth.
According to the transparency watchdogs, it is their hope that “with consistent social effort we can vastly reduce, if not entirely eliminate, this great exploitation of the poor and vulnerable. You can help the fight against corruption by speaking about it, that is, by abandoning your silence. It is not enough for you to give charity to the poor. You must also know that when money is creamed off from the very top, it creates more poverty. By your silence you, the paragon of virtue, become an accomplice to corruption.”
TIGI also called on society at large to support its call for an open Government.
“This is, in summary, a change in the culture of governance from one where government business is to be treated as secret unless it is proven that it may be disclosed with the burden of proof on the citizen, to one where the business is to be public, requiring disclosure, with information published in a form accessible to the ordinary citizen until and unless it can be proven that secrecy is required for some justifiable reason. In such cases, it will be the government’s burden to prove this,” the body said.
In light of the fact that the oil and gas sector is prone to corruption, Guyana has been previously urged to increase beneficial ownership screening, so as to reduce the sector’s risk to corruption.
This was recently noted by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to improving countries’ governance over their natural resources. Since 2015, the institution has been providing advice to Guyana’s authorities.
The Institute noted that in most natural resource-rich countries, when a company is seeking the right to explore for, or produce, oil, gas or minerals, sector rules require that regulators check some basic information before granting the company a license and accompanying contract.
In this regard, NRGI said that the regulator is supposed to judge whether the company is technically competent, financially sound, and is in compliance with environmental and safety rules. It noted, however, that licensing rules generally do not require screening of whether public sector officials have interests in an applicant company, which could create serious conflicts of interest.
The Institute said, “We reviewed over 50 mining and oil laws around the world and found that about half contained prohibitions on government officials or their close associates – often called ‘politically exposed persons’ (PEPs) – holding interests in companies applying for extractives licenses, but none required regulators to actually check whether or not such PEP interests existed as part of screening license applications.”
It added, “This is a potentially critical gap in regulatory oversight, because a large body of real-world cases suggests that the ability to hide a company’s true beneficial owner is a major enabler of corruption in the granting of extractive rights.”
In Guyana, there is no legislation or piece of regulation, which requires beneficial ownership screening. On that note, NRGI has pointed out that a growing number of governments are developing legal policies and information systems for collecting and publishing data about the beneficial owners of extractives companies – the real people who own, control, or economically benefit from a company.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
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