PSC presses for establishment of PPC, Integrity Commissions

The Private Sector Commission (PSC) is once again calling on Government to convene an extra-parliamentary meeting to address the establishment of the Public Procurement and Integrity Commissions.

The PSC said it was time an end was brought to procrastination on such matters, noting that both Government and the political Opposition need to give effect to the promises they made for the setting up of the Commissions.

It said failure to so do would create an all-time lack of interest by society in politics on a whole.

The PSC was speaking directly to the long delay in the establishment of the Public Procurement and the Integrity Commissions.

According to the PSC, there must be compromise on both sides as those Commissions are not political institutions but are meant to add to transparency and accountability.

It said good civil society members (regardless of how they are regarded politically) should be placed on these Commissions.

The Private Sector body said the failure to establish the entities posed a threat to legitimate business activities, created unfair business-to-business competition and was most certainly the reason why some legitimate businesses could not stand up to new competition.

Meanwhile, the Commission also called on Government to fully operationalise the Financial Intelligence Unit and to equip the entity with the necessary personnel to investigate and prosecute financial crimes.

PPCs are usually made up of Government and Opposition parliamentarians, and traditionally chaired by an Opposition member of the House.

Government itself had come under fire for failing to establish the PPC earlier; a promise it made in its manifesto. The absence of the PPC had caused even more outrage against Government, particularly because of its move to carry out a number of forensic audits at State entities across Guyana without carrying the requisite tendering process.