GUYANA| Corruption and incompetence are commonplace in Guyana

GEORGETOWN,  Guyana, July 12, 2023 - A story that barely made the news was that of the Town Clerk of Georgetown appearing in court charged with bribery and corruption. I was shocked knowing that just about every newspaper or television newscast would have a reporter outside the courts.

This shocking bit of news caused me to check around. The information I received suggested that a Stabroek Market stallholder, Bertrand Thorne, filed a complaint with the police. He then took private criminal action because he got nowhere with the police.

His complaint was that between 2009 and 2022, four members of the Georgetown City Council allowed one Terrence Joshua Bidajhar to play music, sell alcohol, procure women for the purposes of solicitation and playing loud and continuous music in the Stabroek Market.

For starters, the present town clerk was not in office back in 2009. But according to municipal sources, the others charged with the town clerk were there. The word is that they had been there as officers of the municipality for years.

The magistrate, Leron Daly, reportedly placed the defendants on $10,000 bail each. What attracted me to this matter was the fact that a private criminal charge got these people before the court without attracting the intervention of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Attorney at Law, Tamieka Clarke, was arrested by the Special Organised Crime Unit on October 28, last year. Clarke was arrested for reportedly advising her client to remain silent.

The arrest sparked condemnation from the legal fraternity with the Guyana Bar Association calling for an immediate investigation into the incident.

Clarke is attached to the law firm of Shaun Allicock but was previously attached to the Director of Public Prosecutions’ Chambers.

One week after the arrest, Attorney at Law Nigel Hughes filed private criminal charges against SOCU. The DPP had earlier informed the police that no charge should be filed against the arresting officers at SOCU. She said that she was using her special powers.

She went on to nolle prosequi the private criminal charges brought by Mr. Hughes on Clarke’s behalf against SOCU. However, the matter went before the Chief Justice. It would seem that the DPP could not halt this matter.

Chief Justice Roxane George found that attorney Tamieka Clarke’s fundamental right to personal liberty was breached by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) when she was arrested on October 28 last year while advising her client.

She cited Article 139 of the Constitution which deals with the protection of the right to personal liberty.

It was found that the detention and seizure of the attorney’s cellular phone by officers of SOCU without her permission and without lawful excuse was wrongful.

The Chief Justice also declared that an attorney-at-law, admitted to practise in Guyana, is entitled to advise a client to remain silent when questioned by any lawful enforcement agency.

Justice George also ruled that an attorney-at-law, is entitled to consult with his/her client in private without the contents of the consultation being recorded in any way, including by means of audio-visual recording by any law enforcement agency in Guyana or elsewhere.

The Chief Justice also found that as a practising attorney-at-law admitted to practise in Guyana, Attorney Clarke is entitled to advise any person who has sought her counsel to exercise the right to remain silent when questioned by a member of any law enforcement agency in Guyana.

So back to the charge against the town clerk and the others. Outgoing Mayor Ubraj Narine repeatedly complained about the actions of the town clerk. He spoke of her refusal to execute decisions taken by the council. He said that she was protected by the ruling party.

Corruption is commonplace among officers of the municipality. Many have been known to shakedown stallholders. Those operating outside the confines of the municipal markets were often threatened that their livelihood would be curtailed unless they paid the officers.

Mr. Thorne said that he had made numerous reports to the municipality but that nothing happened. This is the system that President Irfaan Ali said must work.

It is the same system that sees the part-time workers controlling the distribution of slips to parents seeking to raise queries about their children’s performance at the recent Grade Six examinations.

The Education Ministry has since said that it is not allocating forms but these part-time workers seem to have access to the forms. Some poor parents are being asked to pay $5,000. This is happening at the Education Ministry at Vreed-en-Hoop.

With all the money that is going around, every Tom, Dick and Harrylall in the system is making hay while the sun shines. The poor, most of whom have not had a pay increase or a salary adjustment, must fork out money from their already scarce resources.

It is the system that allows contractors who have been blacklisted by the Public Procurement Commission to gain contracts.

On Friday, the Alliance for Change said that repeated complaints to the Public Procurement Commission, as now constituted, have gone unanswered. The PPC is supposed to protect the society from tenuous awards of contracts.

How else can one explain people getting multi-million-dollar contracts without having any experience in the field?

But this is the system.

It is the same system that allowed Nigel Dharamlall to walk away from a rape and sodomy allegation without spending any time in confinement. This is the same man Bharrat Jagdeo described as an asset to the party.