As the coalition administration continues to receive much criticisms over the levels of corruption in government, a sitting minister has fired back at the populace, accusing the ordinary man of being equally corrupt.
Public Telecommunications Minister Cathy Hughes told the media at a party press conference today that corruption is not just at the government level.
“We somehow forget is that corruption is a culture in Guyana today. It is not just at the government level. It is down all across our society,” she contended.
“Down to the individual that gets stopped by the police and has a choice to pay 7,500 for the ticket but will give the police officer 5,000 and still expect us to be able to stamp it out,” Minister Hughes asserted.
The Public Telecommunications Minister was recently under fire after it was revealed that her private company, VideoMega Productions, has been receiving multiple government contracts.
But she noted that government is doing “everything we can” to stamp out corruption. Some of the biggest corruption scandals of the four-year coalition government are the Durban Park Project, the Sussex Street Drug Bond, the Feasibility Study of the new Demerara Bridge, among others.
“We have had a terrible history of corruption, no question about that, but we are committed to working on it and changing it,” Minister Hughes stated.
But in the same breath, she called out the regular man for also engaging in corrupt practices.
“Every person, the man on the wharf who collects monies and allows the container to go through without the VAT. The person at the health centre that collects the right amounts of tablets that are delivered to the health centre, that has a scam going on, and is taking it out and selling everywhere else.
“Those are the stories that we also need to tell because in Guyana we have a culture. And we have to start ensuring that at all levels we are eradicating it,” she posited.
