Dear Editor,
In Guyana, the people most negatively affected by corruption are women and men who are workers, farmers, small business people and the poor. Therefore, women and men, from the grassroots, have to take the lead as corruption hunters and resisters at the national, regional and local levels.
But to successfully prevent and minimize corruption, there has to be gender equality, that is, the full and equal participation of women in the public and private sectors.
When an equal number of women are in decision-making positions in politics, there are meaningful changes for everyone and less corruption.
The eight top least corrupt countries in the world, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland, have a female President or Prime Minister, at least 40% female Cabinet Ministers and at least 38% female Members of Parliament. Two other least corrupt countries, Belgium and Sweden, do not have a Prime Minister or President but there are at least 50% female Cabinet Ministers and at least 41% female Members of Parliament.
However, there are exceptions. Three of the most corrupt countries (Bangladesh, Myanmar and Togo) are led by women but they have a low representation of women in their Cabinets and Parliaments.
Therefore, to advance human development in Guyana, there must be gender equality in politics. There has to be at least a female President or Prime Minister, and at least 50% of elected representatives in the Cabinet, Parliament, Regional Democratic Councils, Town Coun-cils and Neighbourhood Democratic Councils must be female.
But to elect more women to positions of power will not be sufficient to minimize corruption. Both female and male representatives have to be directly linked and accountable to grassroots communities.
In many countries, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is supporting the empowerment of grassroots women’s groups to fight daily against corrupt activities by public officials and politicians who demand bribes and sexual favours in the following areas – police, health, electricity, water, housing, documentation (travel documents and birth, death and marriage certificates), jobs, permits for micro and small businesses and land transactions.
These campaigns are led by outstanding women who are exposing a wide range of grand and petty corrupt activities.
In India, in the state of Assam, Monika Singh is leading a grassroots women’s group to end the high rate of maternal deaths by stopping the payment of bribes when poor pregnant women try to access medical services. In Bangalore, women like Sangeetha Purushothaman, Tara Tobin, Shruthi Vissa and Priya Pillai lead the Best Practices Foundation that fights against the misuse of power by local officials in poor and marginalized communities. In the state of Gujarat, a women’s group successfully democratized local council elections by ensuring the full and equal participation of women voters and the election of women.
In Africa, Dr. Ngozi Okronjo Iweala, world renowned economist and former Finance Minister of Nigeria, oversaw the following: an audit of the national oil company that exposed the stealing of billions of US dollars in oil revenue, an agreement with the United Kingdom to seize and return funds that were stolen and taken out of the country and the strengthening of lax political campaign finance laws.
In Liberia, Dr. Robtel Neajai Pailey, a former government employee, published a children’s book, titled “Gbagba” (meaning Trickery), that targeted children between 5 and 10 years for a national conversation on corruption. The book is widely distributed in schools. Neajai Pailey was also instrumental in exposing corruption by some applicants who used forged documents and bribes to get foreign scholarships.
In Kenya, a grassroots women’s group empowered female farmers to stand up against corrupt officials who wanted to deprive them of their lands.
In Guatemala, whistleblower Judge Claudia Escobar of the Court of Appeal exposed grand corruption involving illegal interference in the judiciary by the Vice-President of the country and the former President of the Congress.
In Spain, Ana Maria Garrido Ramos, a local government employee in Madrid, exposed corruption that involved bribes for government contracts and an illegal slush fund for the People’s Party (PP). The PP’s Treasurer was jailed for 29 years and fined US$ 51million. The key businessman who organized the illegal activity was jailed for 51 years.
In the USA, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is exposing corruption in political financing.
Based on my work experience in Canada and Guyana, I enjoyed learning from women leaders and colleagues who were great communicators, effective builders of teams, successful problem-solvers and consistent promoters of gender and ethnic equality.
Regardless of my responsibilities in those institutions, I always successfully resisted any attempts by higher authorities to dismiss female professionals.
Two of the most outstanding professionals I worked with for ten years at the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) were Senior Investment Officer Janet Kissoon and Senior Export Promo-tion Officer Uchenna Gibson. They were pro-active professionals who provided high quality advice and services when facilitating and promoting investments and exports. They were incorruptible, inclusive, fair, balanced, understanding and helpful.
In four confidential client surveys between 2001 and 2009, funded and overseen by USAID and the Inter-American Development Bank, both local and foreign micro, small, medium and large companies made special mention of Janet’s and Uchenna’s professionalism and their willingness to go way beyond what was expected. Without a doubt, investment and export promotion agencies in the Caribbean and North America would want them to be part of their teams.
The next letter will explore the critical role that religions will have to play in hunting and resisting corruption.
Yours faithfully,
Geoffrey Da Silva
