Graft
Editorial
Stabroek News
March 25, 2004
The 'soya milk' scam, followed by the 'stone' scam; the 'gold' scam; the 'US visa' scam; the 'old-age pension book' scam; the 'Laws of Guyana' publishing scam; the 'IAST' scam, and the 'duty-free vehicles' scam have become landmarks of public life in recent times. These, and other yet unexposed scams measure the phenomenal growth of graft in Guyana and its infection of various arms of the State.
Even a cursory perusal of para-statal agencies and Government ministries would reveal how deeply graft has affected the acquisition of firearm licences; allocation of house lots; avoidance of tender board procedures; awarding of road, building and sea defence contracts; declarations of diamond and gold production; distribution of pension-books and school-uniform vouchers; evasion of customs duties; petroleum importation; secondary school placement; traffic offences; wildlife trade, and many other everyday activities.
The word itself probably came into popular use because illegitimate profit was looked upon as a 'graft', or a sort of excrescence on a legitimate transaction, as distinct from its natural or normal development.
In Guyana, together with its two sinister sisters - bribery and corruption - graft has become a semi-normal means of transacting business between certain citizens and some sections of the Public Service. Graft has now come to refer to the acquisition of favours, gifts or money by taking advantage of public office or any position of trust to obtain contracts, fees, perquisites and profits or by receiving payment for which work was not done or services not performed.
Most developed countries have avoided the worst consequences of this practice not because their citizens and civil servants are more honest but because laws and mechanisms are enforced and supervised more vigorously to prevent graft from overwhelming legitimate administration. Not so in Guyana.
Graft in Guyana has become the greatest challenge to good governance. Laws inscribed in our statute books were once enforced by an army of uniformed customs and excise officers, school inspectors, sanitary inspectors, bailiffs, building superintendents, forestry rangers, marshals, policemen, probation officers and the like. Their transactions were recorded in reports and scrutinised by supervisors to ensure due compliance with regulations.
This changed. Many post-Independence leaders, up to the present time, feel obliged to curry the favour of friends, relatives, party supporters and campaign contributors. Strict regulations and honest officials were seen as a humbug. By trading official services for political support or pecuniary gain, an illicit web of mutual obligation was woven among venal public officers, private citizens and partisan politicians.
This circle of vice, of course, was actuated by common greed. Poorly-paid policemen and other officials, even without political ambitions or obligations, simply sell their services for money. Unscrupulous officials exploit the bewildering bureaucratic array of hand-written certificates, licences, passes, permits, vouchers and invoices to frustrate impatient citizens who are prepared to pay good money to escape the maze of officialdom.
As a result, what in some parts of Asia is called 'speed money' and in Africa, 'dash', is often used to slice through the thicket of paper in order to expedite business. Graft avoids high fees and slow procedures for official services by swift, cheap, illegal means.
Pervasive graft is symptomatic of a dysfunctional state. Graft undermines democracy by granting favours only to those who can afford to pay bribes. It distorts development by providing assets to those who are least qualified to receive them but are willing to pay the most. By expropriating the nation's wealth, corrupt officials and their clients leave little for the needy.
In the final analysis, only few gain from graft and many lose. The true cost of graft cannot be calculated merely by short-term embarrassing press reports but by the long-term damage to democracy and development.