Well, what in the world triggered the warning on September 7 by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo to the crème de la crèmeof senior civil servants functioning in this administration? Ministers of the government were also present were they also subject to the warning?
A brief summary of the meeting was provided by the head of the President’s public relations unit, Suelle Findlay-Williams. The warning was delivered during a meeting at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre attended by ministers, all Permanent Secretaries and Regional Executive Officers, accounting officers from key semi-autonomous agencies and other officials.
The release said that the meeting examined measures to improve management, accountability and transparency across ministries, regions and other public sector agencies. Procurement transactions, government payments and the dissemination of information to the public were among the areas discussed.
Mr Jagdeo emphasised the responsibility of Permanent Secretaries and Regional Executive Officers to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations and to properly manage the public resources entrusted to their agencies, the release said.
The meeting also considered initiatives to strengthen the monitoring of compliance with procurement and payment systems, but no details of those measures were provided.
This meeting appeared to have had some trigger behind it but this was not made public. Such an August gathering isn’t convened just like that. Should anything be read into the fact that the meeting was summoned on a day that President Ali was out of the country?
It has to be said that if after six years of the Ali administration such a stark admonition has to be issued to the most senior civil servants of the government and in the presence of ministers then it means that systems have failed and there is haemorrhaging somewhere and in a significant manner.
Ever since the start of the Ali administration there have been serious concerns about a whole series of misdeeds of the type that could have warranted the warning on September 7th. Contracts have been awarded to people who have no business getting them, the Belle Vue pump station being the most damning. There have been severe delays – as in the Port Kaituma project which necessitated the 87-year-old MV Barima to continue operating. Were any penalties applied in this case? Was any party dismissed?
There have been severe cost overruns on projects – the gas to energy project is a prime example – and accusations of kickbacks being handed down. There have also been credible reports of senior government officials engaged in private business in their exact areas of responsibility.
What makes these problems even more chronic is that the institutional and regulatory systems to contain them do not exist. A day before the Vice President’s meeting, Kiskadee Watch published an accountability column by former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran in which he declared that the procurement system was broken. He pointed to several improprieties at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, the absence of a Public Procurement Commission and the ineffectual Integrity Commission. It is a frightening proposition that in a procurement sector sucking up billions of dollars a year there is such disarray in relation to the regulatory infrastructure.
The government has turned a blind eye to the various examples that expose it such as the Belle Vue contract. It has adopted this outlook as it is determined to have its way and to favour its constituents and supporters with contracts even if they are patently undeserving.
The President has given a good talk on battling corruption and influence peddling but has failed to deliver. When he was sworn in on September 7th, 2025 President Ali made a number of declarations about how he intends to govern. While speaking about corruption, the President said: “On this note, I wish to emphasise that the government does not have a system of lobbying, and any person representing themselves as lobbyists or peddling access to anyone in government is misrepresenting themselves and misleading others. A special mechanism will be set up to deal with such individuals”.
This “special mechanism” is of such sterling quality that it is yet to be seen. Influence-peddling czars remain within government circles. What Mr Ali had to say about corruption was also important.
The President said: “Corruption undermines the efficiency, fairness, and credibility of public service. That is why we will strengthen our anti-corruption efforts by establishing a dedicated Anti-Corruption Unit, tasked with excising this cancer from our institutions and holding public officials to the highest standards of integrity. Every official will be required to account for their personal assets, and anyone who cannot do so will face the full force of the law. We will pursue both the corrupted and the corrupters, leaving no room for impunity”.
Thus far there has been no evidence of an Anti-Corruption Unit and there has been no accounting for assets under the current Integrity Commission Act. The real estate acquisitions of Minister Rodrigues await forensic examination. Indeed, a shadow has fallen on the President himself as it relates to his Long Creek farm and its intersections with the business world. One cannot admonish senior civil servants and ministers about scrupulous adherence to rules if there are questions about those at the top.
If the government is serious about checking corruption it needs reform of regulatory agencies and the instituting of important tools such as whistleblower legislation. This outlook must also be evident in the upper echelons of government so that there is no whiff of self-dealing and influence peddling. The Ali administration has a far way to go before it can credibly present itself as a serious advocate against corruption.
Discussion