Transparency, accountability have disappeared – Nandlall

… calls on Govt to release contract agreements

Despite President David Granger’s announcement that all contracts and concessions should be in the limelight, these documents are not in the public’s domain and have either been concealed using the red tape of the system or pining it on the interference of national security.
This is according to former Attorney General Anil Nandlall who stated that this is evidence that transparency and accountability have disappeared in Guyana.

“Transparency should be removed from the political vocabulary of this Administration,” he opined, noting that it was Government, when in Opposition had adopted the role of a watchdog for transparency.
Nandlall highlighted that although the Opposition has called on the Government “time and time again” to disclose contracts which were entered into by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government but they have refused.
“These are the same contracts that they said were corrupt but if they were corrupt show us we want to see,” he said.
He stated that some of those contracts include the Marriott Hotel contract, the Amaila Falls contract, the Specialty Hospital contract and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport contract. “When they were in Opposition, they contended that these contracts were crooked now you are in Government and you have the agreements so demonstrate it,” he charged.
In the National Assembly, he recounted that the Opposition had called on the Government to make public their incomes and assets going back 10 years, but again they had declined. Nandlall chided that the same sort of corruption the Government accused the PPP of which he claims that they themselves were engaging in.
Therefore, he stated that it is important for the Government to be held accountable as it relates to the State’s finances.
“Every day there are dozens of contracts being awarded in violation of the Procurement Act without any public tendering,” he said, adding that the Drug Bond scandal is the mother of all hand-picking contracts the Government has embarked on.
“It is a fact that accountability and transparency has disappeared from Government in just 15 months in Office,” he reiterated.