Cognizant of corrupt practices in public offices, the Guyana Government is calling on contractors to report, publicly or to State officials, any instances of “shakedown”.
Currently, there are some 7000 government projects being implemented across the country and according to Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, these cannot be monitored effectively.
To this end, the Vice President is calling on contractors to report any instances of public officials engaging in corrupt practices.
“My message to people is that anyone trying to shake you down for money, please contact us,” he stated.
According to Jagdeo, there are many attempts in which public officers ask contractors for money in exchange for certain benefits.
“We can’t know if a Clerk of Work on a project… is asking the contractor for money. But the contractors have to understand that if they comply with this, they’re not only breaching the system, they’re doing something illegal. They should contact us… it will be treated with high priority,” the Vice President assured.
Jagdeo wanted that if the government finds out that any contractor is complicit in such corrupt practices then they along with the public official will be disciplined even if that contractor is found to be eligible on merit.
The Vice President further pointed out that even in the housing sector, there are numerous complaints daily about persons being shaken down for money in order to get their land approved.
“Please don’t go to middlemen… There is no middleman here… Anybody who says that to you, you just bring it to the President’s attention, or the minister’s or my attention, or the Tender Board. Get it out in the public domain, go public with it – that is what we need,” Jagdeo declared.
