Dear Editor,
It is with much disappointment that I write to you today regarding the Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. (TIGI). As an institution that is supposed to be focused on transparency in the affairs of the country, we have seen it selectively speaking out on matters. In my opinion, and I am sure many of your readers would agree, it is very transparent where the TIGI stands.
I ask that you kindly allow me to voice some of my concerns. First and foremost, there are several reasons why the TIGI in its current construct should be condemned by Guyanese. However, I know that if I were to list them all, there would not be enough space in your publication to record them.
As I said at the beginning, the TIGI is supposed to be focused on promoting transparency, yet it is always silent when its voice is needed the most. I bring attention to the fact that, throughout the entire 2020 General and Regional Elections fiasco which we faced as a country, we heard nothing from this so-called “transparency institute”. When the APNU+AFC tried desperately to rig the elections in front of the nation and the world’s eyes, the TIGI was silent. We heard not a word from them when Mingo and Lowenfield tried to alter the results of the elections in favour of the coalition.
One would assume that as a pro-transparency organisation, it would’ve at least called on the APNU+AFC to be transparent by releasing copies of their ‘winning’ SOPs. We are yet to hear anything in this regard.
I ask this: Where is the voice of Alfred Bhulai and the TIGI in this regard?
Editor, I wish to also point out that during the period 2015 to 2020, when the APNU+AFC coalition was in office, several exposures of massive corruption were made. Where was the TIGI then? It was silent throughout it all. However, prior to 2015, when the PPP/C was in Government, the TIGI was very vocal. It spoke out aggressively against the Government on every topic under the sun.
The trend here is very clear: It spoke out in the pre-2015 period, was silent during the 2015-to-2020 period, and then suddenly became vocal again in the post-August 2020 period. Where were Alfred Bhulai and TIGI when the APNU+AFC hid the signing bonus for a year? When the Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, said later that he thought it was a gift, we heard not even a murmur from TIGI. Suddenly Bhulai and the other fossils at GHRA have found their voice once again, and they are enabled by certain media interests.
Editor, it is very obvious where the TIGI stands, and, as such, anything that it says here onwards should be condemned, as it is biased and has lost whatever credibility it had.
Respectfully,
Alvin Hamilton
