Lack of action in addressing corruption in Police Force – US State Dept

…says widespread corruption perception at all levels in Guyana

The United States (US) State Department has released a report on Guyana and its human rights record for 2019. When it comes to tackling corruption at the level of the Government and Police, however, the Department said that despite frequent corruption, there was a lack of action.
According to the recently released report, there were isolated reports of Government corruption throughout the year. The Department noted that the law provides for criminal penalties for such acts, something that is generally adhered to.
But while there was some response to such reports, the State Department found that there remains “a widespread public perception of corruption involving officials at all levels, including the police and the Judiciary.”
“Corruption by Police officers was frequent. There were no reports the Government prosecuted any members of the Police Force during the year,” the 15-page State Department report also revealed.
The State Department also touched on financial disclosure, a sore point throughout 2019 as several officials including those in Government and former Members of Parliament were flagged by the Integrity Commission for not declaring their assets. The Department was, however, critical of the Commission, which it said did not appear fully functional.
“The law requires public officials to declare their assets to an Integrity Commission and sets out both criminal and administrative sanctions for nondisclosure. If a person fails to file a declaration, the daily newspapers and the official gazette can publish that fact. Failure to comply with the law can lead to a summary conviction, fines, and imprisonment for six to 12 months.”
“If property is not disclosed as required, the Magistrate convicting the defendant must order the defendant to make a full disclosure within a set time. Although the Integrity Commission was reconstituted in February 2018, after a 12-year hiatus, it did not appear to be fully functional. No publications or convictions occurred during the first months of the year.”
In January, the Integrity Commission published a list of a number of public officials who failed to declare their assets last year and among those are a number of Ministers and former Government parliamentarians.
According to the Gazetted list, as of January 2020, a total of eight Ministers failed to declare their assets between July 2018 and June 2019. Early in 2019, the Integrity Commission had flagged a number of public officials for failing to make their declarations. President David Granger was even named as one of the defaulters, having failed to comply with the stipulated deadline of May 20, 2019.
Under the law, any public official who fails to comply with the Commission is liable upon summary conviction, to a fine of $25,000 and imprisonment for a period of not less than six months or more than one year.
In an interview with this publication last year, Integrity Commission Chairman Kumar Duraisami had committed that they would pursue prosecution against public officials who are delinquent in declaring their assets in 2020.