The ruling Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) has dismissed allegations from opposition political parties that it is corrupt and condones corruption as “ridiculous”.
Robert Persaud
Clearing the air in an interview with Guyana Times International, the party’s campaign manager, Robert Persaud said the PPP/C was not surprised that the new clandestine opposition alliance which includes A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) would seek to mislead the public during the elections season.
He said their desperate attempts of using certain sections of the media to place all sorts of wrong doings, allegations of public misconduct and corruption at the feet of the PPP/C is another crack at trying to muster up electoral support. On that score, Persaud accused the opposition leaders and candidates who have been making the allegations against the PPP/C of peddling lies, misinformation and rumours.
“We all know that there are issues in terms of addressing corruption as you go to government services, and so persons would complain, but to suggest that at the executive level or the state level there is this policy of encouraging corruption is a total and a ridiculous fabrication that sometimes doesn’t even warrant a response.
“But I find it distressing that instead of focusing on the issues that are important to the electorate, we see now the platform of the AFC/APNU alliance is one in which the leaders and speakers would go up there and make a set of false claims and these claims are sometimes repeated and regurgitated in some sections of the media,” Persaud said.
He was more than convinced that the PPP/C administration has done everything that it could do so far to bring an end to the corruption which was an integral part of the People’s National Congress when it was in power. He said that since the PPP/C took office, it has reinstated the Auditor General’s report while creating an autonomous Auditor General’s Office that no longer has to present its report to the finance minister, but to the Public Accounts Committee.
“I want to challenge them to let us focus on the issues, but they will not focus on the issues because they do not have an answer, they do not have an alternative. What they have is scandal and rumour mongering, for them the development of this country is about scandals, creating scandals and rumour mongering and ensuring that they get some sensationational headlines in the newspapers,” Persaud emphasised.
Persaud was unmoved stating that his government has a zero-tolerance approach and was not denying that corruption exists at some levels of the society, but would not sit idly by either and allow the opposition to suggest that the PPP/C was condoning, or is part of any corrupt act.
