TIGI’s attention has been drawn to the remarks of VP Jagdeo published in the online version of the Village Voice as follows:
‘Moreover, Jagdeo argued that the institution does not issue reports which would aid in their transparency. “TIGI (Transparency Institute Guyana Inc), they don’t have any integrity as far as I’m concerned because they’re very selective. Now if you look at also Transparency International, I believe that they are biased against (the) developing World…if you look at these things there may be justifiable cause for the index or a slipping on the index. It could be a function of misinformation, by organizations, like TIGI because they have an anti PPP agenda,” the VP contended.’
TIGI admits that it is selective. We plead guilty. However, we have not selected on the basis of which party is in government. We simply do not have the manpower to comment on every item that requires commenting on in Guyana. We would be overwhelmed. That has been so for the longest while. So, what we tend to do of late is to use the risk-based approach (RBA). The areas of greatest exposure to the country is what we have tended to focus on. Clearly this will be the petroleum industry and procurement. Our articles since 2018 will support this. They are a matter of record. They are now on our website among others.
We do not know why VP Jagdeo would launch such a broadside against us. To the best of our knowledge and belief his government has ensured that we have been invited to participate in some of its activities. For example, we were invited to and ensured that we participated in the local content meeting.
We were unable to participate in the last event to which the VP invited us because our more knowledgeable representative was unable to attend in person and the organisers refused to allow participation by Zoom. So, as far as we know, the VP’s animosity has not been earned.
When it comes to the matter at hand, that is the Transparency International Corruptions Perceptions index, the VP has either subjected his government to his own criticism or has reacted to criticism elsewhere in the media. We have not interpreted the 2021 CPI in the way the VP seems to have, i.e., and indictment against his government.
The press release we made in no way indicts the current government. We attach the full wording issued on the 25th of January last. We are quite aware that there was a drop of two points but we know that a drop of 2 points is not significant. In fact, the preview we supplied to the press mentioned a “surprise.” It was intended to mean that Guyana had been identified in a positive way as leading consistently the countries that had shown an improvement over the last several years.
We wish to take the opportunity to state clearly that we have arrived at a policy of making reference to our “governments” so as to avoid just the kind of perception that the VP has managed to place at our feet, or to throw at his own government in our name. There is enough evidence of things going awry and being left undone to throw at every government since we have been in existence.
As far as the VP’s comments against TI, that it is biased against the developing world, we are quite aware of the accusation and we (TIGI) believe that that is being addressed.
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