One day after Transparency International released its latest report on corruption and stated that in Guyana, state capture by economic and political elites fosters misappropriation of resources, illicit enrichment and environmental crime, President Irfaan Ali has dismissed the report as “politically biased”.

The international report stated that although Guyana has created anti-corruption institutions and laws, transparency and law enforcement are very low, and attacks on dissenting voices, activists and journalists are increasingly common.

On the sidelines of the opening of the Annual Officers Conference of the Guyana Defence Force this morning, the President questioned the report and the sources of information for the Transparency International group.

“There is a serious political bias and that is why many countries in the globe are saying that these perceptions indicators, that we have to bring accountability to these indicators, because when they come here, if you are interviewing someone with a bias, you are interviewing someone with political motives or a political agenda, what do you expect to get. If you are doing a fair independent evaluation, then you go interview everyone and then the Government responds or whoever responds. If that mechanism is not in place, then there is no credibility to what you do”, President Ali said.

The report gave Guyana a score of 39 out of 100 on the Transparency corruption indicator, with 100 being very clean and 0 is seen as highly corrupt.

President Ali said he intends to address the issue in more detail.

The Transparency International group pulls information for its reports from various organisations in the country, including international and non-governmental groups and foreign missions and the media through its reports.

The Government has been coming under increased criticism and scrutiny over reports of corruption within public institutions and Government offices. The Government has also faced criticism over attacks targeting Government critics and those who highlight cases and allegations of corruption in Government.

Some activists have accused the Government of filing trumped up cyber crime charges against them, in an effort to silence their criticism.

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