VP Jagdeo exposes lies, biases and lack of credibility in TIGI reports
– Questions how reports are generated
Transparency International Guyana (TIGI) was the subject of much criticism by Vice President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo for its lack of credibility and bias nature, particularly in the generation of its corruption reports.
The vice president, who was speaking during an interview aired on Friday last questioned, “Does it [the report] go to their board, not just the head of the agency sends it off. Does it go to their board for discussion and if so, did that report go to their board and then shouldn’t the citizens of the country see the report that they send up secretly to Transparency International to falsely influence them.
“So, these local organisations that are bias can influence an international body that believes that they have credibility to put you to either score you higher or lower on an index. So, the indices themselves become suspect.”
The report in question is the 2019 report published by TIGI during the period of the APNU+AFC government.
Dr Jagdeo said, “If TIGI has any credibility because they may want to distance, they would first of all, distance themselves from that [2019] report.”
For context, TIGI is an affiliate of the Transparency International organisation, which is dedicated to promoting transparency and accountability in government and business practices and fighting corruption.
According to research, the organisation generates its reports through a combination of research, data analysis, and stakeholder engagement. The organisation may use various methods to gather information, including surveys, interviews with experts and stakeholders, and the examination of publicly available data and documents. The information is then analysed to identify trends, patterns, and potential instances of corruption or lack of transparency.
Once the analysis is complete, TIGI may publish its findings in the form of reports, which outline the key issues and recommendations for improvement. The reports are meant to provide an independent and objective assessment of the situation and to inform public debate and decision-making. Bottom of Form
However, Dr Jagdeo, who shared his belief that the organisation is anti-PPP, pointed to instances where TIGI seems to have overlooked major corruption under the previous APNU+AFC government.
“So, we [Guyana] got scored higher on track in the APNU period on the Transparency Corruption Perception Index, because the report said they did a survey, that’s where citizens in the APNU period said there is less corruption in the government… In that period, you had at the tender board, procedures were violated, that was the norm. That was not the exception, every tender procedure, we have tons of the sale of land. We now have people charged for the sale of land without any evaluation, without collecting the money that was transferred, like what Jordan did. We had the Patterson scandal with the bridge, we had a ton of. I can go along and list, I can list 30 issues where ministers were involved in giving contracts to themselves in the ministry. $600 million missing from that, the D’Urban Park fiasco, you know, that stadium or whatever they built there. It was the norm, more citizens felt there was greater corruption in that period, yet the local TIGI office sent up a report saying that people felt the new government, the PNC government, was not corrupt, less corrupt,” VP Jagdeo highlighted.
TIGI had noted that the APNU+AFC administration had released the oil and gas contract, but on the contrary, the vice president noted that neither the contract or environmental permit were made public.
In fact, the PPP/C government, since assuming office in August 2020 has publicly made available all the environmental permits it has issued, as well as those issued under the coalition government. In addition, the licensing of the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels have now been made public.
“But Troy Thomas [former TIGI president] and the local TIGI report said APNU should be lauded because they released oil and gas contracts. A lie, it’s a big lie that he told in that report. Secondly, he said about a parking metre, that they reversed the parking metre. Now they were the ones you will remember, [Ronald] Bulkan approved the process moving forward. It was a PNC cabal in the City Council that organised this parking metre fiasco and it was approved by the minister… So just imagine they’re taking credit for a corrupt transaction, taking credit for transparency on a corrupt transaction and this is aided and abetted by TIGI,” Dr Jagdeo stated.
He also noted that under the previous administration the secretariat of the Integrity Commission was dismantled, thereby removing the process of public officials presenting financial statements.
“Every year we have had to submit our statements to the Integrity Commission, every year, I became president in 1999 from 2000, we started, the law was passed and we pushed it in place. Guess which years we have the gaps in, under the five years of APNU, their three years where nobody had to submit because APNU refuse to submit… The worst period in terms of non-submission to the Integrity Commission was under the five years of APNU and the shameful Troy Thomas and the TIGI, they said they give them credit.”
Other instances of corruption were highlighted by the vice president during the five-year period under the APNU+AFC, which TIGI has failed to include in its report, but continue to target current government officials, exposing its biased nature.
“You’ll recall when Harmon was seen in a plane somewhere in China, right, flying around and people were raised, would you put that in your report with TIGI, they wanted to meet Harmon to get his explanation. You have one issue with a PPP minister now, and you want to bet it’s in our report. I’ve never seen Cathy Hughes who was giving contracts to herself or the housing minister [under APNU] was giving her husband contracts any part of our report. It’s selective, transparency,” Dr Jagdeo asserted.