Caribbean countries should strengthen their democratic institutions – Min. Teixeira

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira has stressed that anti-corruption measures should see the strengthening of democratic institutions.

The minister was at the time speaking during a session at the 9th Annual Conference of the Commonwealth Caribbean Association of Integrity Commissions and Anti-Corruption Bodies (CCAICACB) being hosted at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Liliendaal.

Minister Teixeira highlighted the inaccuracies of the global index used to measure corruption in Caribbean countries, the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).

She pointed out that many articles in international media paint Caribbean countries as corrupt.

Rather, the minister identified empirical data as the only credible source recognised by Guyana and expressed the importance of Caribbean countries conducting more of their own research, and writing their own stories.

She expanded on this point, noting that these indices give numerous amounts of power to a small number of persons in evaluating an entire country.

 “How is it that the CPI of the TI points out that the southern part of the world is more corrupt than the others? Isn’t that rather coincidental? For me, this is a reflection of prejudices and biases against persons in the developing world.

“In the Caribbean, we have to find a way to deal with the smallness and the uniqueness of some of our countries. We also need to strengthen our institutions, if we want to make a good forward movement to reduce corruption,” she added.

A key aspect of strengthening democratic institutions, Minister Teixeira said, is engaging directly with the people, ensuring that they are knowledgeable of the anti-corruption measures being taken, while also garnering their views on challenges faced.

The parliamentary affairs minister noted that following the identification of major sources of corruption, relevant legislative measures should be put in place to strengthen the country’s response.

The forum, titled ‘Factors that impact Anti-Corruption efforts in the Region’, saw intense discussions on the role played by a country’s policies, laws, people, and institutions in advancing this charge.

Further, the forum identified key measures on the anti-corruption agenda, such as deepening connections with communities and civil society and increasing the number of research activities or projects on understanding various anti-corruption initiatives in each country.

The annual conference will continue for the rest of the week.