Guyanese urged to adopt anti-corruption posture

The State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) today began a series of training with staff of key Government agencies to effectively tackle corruption.

The training began with officers of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).

At the opening ceremony held at the GRA’s training room, Deputy Director of SARA, Aubrey Heath-Retemyer pointed out that corruption is everybody’s business.

He noted that corruption has been very pervasive in Guyana but if dealt with, many sectors of the economy could have been further developed.

“Without that oil coming off the shores of Guyana, what we have now, what we been experiencing for years, we could make this a far better country than what it is. The health care system in this country needs improving but corruption will cause all types of things to go wrong,” he said in a passionate plea for more stringent efforts to fight corruption.

Between 2010 and 2014, the SARA official pointed out that the country has been losing between $28B and $35B in procurement funds per year. He said another $100B was being invested in the “underground economy.”

He called on Guyanese to help in the fight against corruption noting that “in ten years from now, people will recognise this country different if you do your part.”

Though the term corruption is often times associated with public officials, Deputy Head of the GRA’s Legal Department, Lancelot Wills, pointed out “that is not the case; corruption is everybody’s business because it takes away from the resource base of the state which invests in its citizens by way of education, improvement in infrastructure utilities, etc.”

SARA will be meeting with the Public Service College, the Guyana Defence Force and other agencies to conduct more training.