A team of anti-corruption experts from the Organisation of American States (OAS) will be conducting an onsite visit in Guyana next month to fine-tune and iron out corruption matters. The team will arrive on October 6 and 7 but the actual review process will be carried out on October 8-10. This was announced by Presidential Adviser on Governance Gail Teixeira.
At the end of the visit, a report will be completed and Guyana will have an opportunity to know of areas of shortcomings to be addressed.
“The OAS technician secretariat and translation team as well as the three experts from Haiti and one from Trinidad will be here… for the review and for each country lots are pulled at the beginning of the review cycle to determine which country will review which country,” she said.
The morning of October 8 will be exclusively reserved for civil society organisations; 12 of which from Guyana have been invited to participate.
“Four of these organisations have agreed and submitted the names of their representatives and we are following up with the other eight since we would want a broad support from them,” Teixeira explained.
Some of the topics that will be up for discussion include conflict of interest, systems for registering, registering income assets and liabilities, public information and mechanisms to encourage participation of civil society to prevent corruption.
“Oversight bodies will be included in the agenda with set times, the organisations have been named by the OAS already.”
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The Audit Office of Guyana, the Public Service Commission (PSC), the National Procurement and Tender Administration, the director of public prosecution (DPP), the Judicial Services Commission, the Integrity Commission and the commissioner of information will all be part of those meetings in October.
“Thus far, five have responded and submitted their representatives’ names,” Teixeira said.
Guyana in 2001 singed onto and ratified the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC).
