Guyana Times article must be belated All Fools Day joke – DPI

─ Guyana became a cesspool of corruption under PPP 

DPI, Guyana, Monday, April 8, 2019

The lead article in today’s edition of the Guyana Times is “vulgar and laughable”. Describing the report, Director of Public Information, Imran Khan says that the article must represent “some sick belated April Fool’s Day joke”.

The article, headlined ‘Guyana perceived as corrupt – US State Dept’, was deceptively written and sought to paint the impression that Guyana has been in decline with regard to the fight against corruption, Khan added.

“The opposite is the reality, Guyana has moved from an all-time low of ranking the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index of 136 under the PPP to 93 under this government, an improvement of 43 places in just a few short years.”

Guyana’s ranking fell steadily from 117 in 2006, to 136 in 2013, and was in constant decline throughout.

“The Guyana Times is nothing but a PPP propaganda rag, not interested in facts but purely to use misinformation and false information in promoting the PPP’s agenda.”

Khan went on to note some of the many scandals during the PPP’s tenure in office, including the billion-dollar fibre-optic cable scandal, the Specialty Hospital Scandal, the billion-dollar sole sourcing drug procurement scandals, the radio licensing scandal, the Pradoville houseboat scandal and the textbooks scandal.

The Coalition Government, he asserted, has been systematically fighting against the corrosive corruption in society by implementing measures to clamp down on what had become an endemic practice under the previous government.

He identified several of these measures;

(i) the piloting of the crucial amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financial Terrorism Act,

(ii) the setting up of the Financial Intelligence Unit,

(iii) the US Drug Enforcement Administration setting up of an office in Guyana,

(iv) the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission,

(v) the establishment of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU),

(vi) the establishment of the State Asset Recovery Agency (SARA)

(vii) and operationalisation of the independence of the statutory agencies (Parliament, GECOM and the Judiciary) budget.

Khan also pointed to a Kaieteur News article from 2017, which reported that Guyana lost over $300BILLION annually through corruption under the PPP government.