标签： Suriname

As Suriname prepares to receive billions in new revenue from its emerging oil and gas sector, a leading Surinamese economist has sounded a urgent alarm: systemic corruption already erodes the nation’s governance, and without immediate, targeted institutional reform, the coming resource windfall risks becoming a curse rather than a catalyst for long-term prosperity.

In a new article titled *Kot A Keti; Why Suriname Must Break the Chain of Corruption Now*, published in the journal of the Association of Economists of Suriname (VES), economist Winston Ramautarsing lays out a comprehensive case for reform, drawing on insights from his recent masterclass presentation at August’s national Compliance Congress. Ramautarsing argues that corruption is far more than a scattered series of isolated bribes or bad acts — it has become a structural flaw embedded in Suriname’s governance system, one that blocks citizen trust, undermines effective public administration and derails sustainable economic growth.

Against common perceptions that frame corruption only as large-scale bribery schemes, Ramautarsing redefines the issue at its core: the abuse of entrusted public power for personal or factional gain, a practice that can take hold across government agencies, private enterprises and civil society organizations alike. He particularly warns against the dangerous social normalization of “petty corruption” — small bribes to speed up administrative processes, nepotism in hiring, favoritism for friends and political allies that is often dismissed as harmless.

“This normalization is where the rot begins,” Ramautarsing argues. When citizens, business owners and public officials come to accept rule-breaking as normal, a cultural shift occurs that makes large-scale corruption far easier to hide and justify. Corruption does not start with multi-million dollar public contracts; it starts with the widespread belief that rules only apply to other people.

Data from Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index underscores the severity of the trend. Suriname scored just 38 out of 100, ranking 96th out of 182 countries — well below the global average score of 42. Worse, the nation has seen a steady decline in its score over the past decade: it held a 45-point score as recently as 2016. This consistent downward trend, Ramautarsing says, is a clear red flag for declining integrity across the entire public sector.

The economic and social costs of this corruption are far from abstract. For international investors, who weigh natural resource access against rule of law, transparent permitting, secure property rights and predictable regulation, systemic corruption raises operational risk and drives up the cost of doing business, discouraging the outside investment Suriname needs to diversify its economy. For ordinary Surinamese citizens, the costs are even more direct: inflated public project costs from kickbacks and siphoned tax revenues leave less public funding for critical sectors including healthcare, education, and infrastructure. When access to jobs and business opportunities depends on personal connections rather than merit, economic inequality widens and the nation wastes critical talent that could drive growth.

While Suriname enacted a national Anti-Corruption Act in 2017 and established an official Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in 2023, Ramautarsing says the body is currently too under-resourced to tackle complex corruption cases effectively. The ACC lacks sufficient numbers of specialized investigators, forensic experts, data analysts and IT infrastructure, leaving it functioning more as a weak integrity office than a powerful, independent anti-corruption enforcement authority.

Using Singapore’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau as a model, Ramautarsing notes that the city-state’s anti-corruption agency has hundreds of specialized staff, broad investigative powers and substantial independent funding. While Suriname does not need to copy Singapore’s system exactly, he argues it must learn a core lesson: anti-corruption efforts without professional capacity and political independence remain little more than symbolic gestures. To build an effective ACC in Suriname, Ramautarsing proposes expanding the body’s investigative powers, staffing it with roughly 30 full-time professional employees, and allocating an annual budget of approximately $5 million USD.

The coming oil and gas revenue boom makes this reform exponentially more urgent, Ramautarsing stresses. Future resource revenues offer Suriname an unprecedented opportunity to invest in long-term development across education, healthcare, infrastructure and climate action — but massive new capital flows also bring severe integrity risks. Every step of the oil and gas supply chain, from permit granting and public contracting to royalty collection and regulation, is vulnerable to conflicts of interest and corrupt exploitation.

To mitigate these risks, Ramautarsing calls for full public disclosure of all major oil and gas contracts, independent auditing of all state revenues and capital flows from the sector, and transparent public reporting of all royalties and profit oil. “Citizens have a right to track how much money enters the state, and how it is spent,” he argues. Left unregulated, he warns, oil revenues could cement a new system of political patronage that entrench systemic corruption — a historic mistake that would waste the nation’s best chance for broad-based prosperity. He frames the choice clearly: will oil become a source of sustainable national welfare, or just “a new pot of honey” for corrupt actors to plunder?

Ramautarsing argues that effective reform does not require dozens of new overlapping laws. Instead, a small set of targeted changes can drive major progress. Digitalization of public services is one high-impact tool: corruption thrives on in-person interactions, discretionary decision-making and lack of auditable paper trails. By digitalizing core processes across customs, tax administration, construction permitting and public procurement, all decisions and transactions become far easier to trace and audit. Public contracting should also be fully transparent from the initial tender notice through the final invoice, so that the public can verify what is purchased, from whom, at what price, and under what procedures. Additionally, Ramautarsing calls for strong legal protections for whistleblowers, including confidential reporting channels, legal safeguards against retaliation such as firing or blacklisting, and independent investigation of all reported misconduct.

Crucially, Ramautarsing emphasizes that fighting corruption is not the sole responsibility of government, police and the courts. Businesses, civil society groups, independent media and individual citizens all play a role in maintaining the corrupt system. He questions the credibility of public outrage over large corruption scandals when many people are willing to accept small acts of nepotism, favoritism or conflict of interest when they personally benefit. The chain of corruption relies on multiple links: someone asks for a bribe, someone offers it, someone pays it, someone looks the other way, and someone profits.

Suriname stands at a critical crossroads, Ramautarsing concludes. Institutional strengthening must happen before large oil revenues begin to flow, not after billions have been lost to corruption and mismanagement. While fully eradicating corruption is not a realistic short-term goal, the nation can aim to build a system where corruption is no longer the easiest path to power, wealth and influence. That goal requires strong independent institutions, radical transparency, professional compliance frameworks and active public oversight. In the end, however, breaking the chain requires individual responsibility. The chain can only be broken when enough Surinamese citizens refuse to participate — a call to action captured in his article’s title, *Kot A Keti*, which means “cut the chain”.

Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez will touch down in Suriname Thursday evening at the head of a high-level governmental delegation, bringing a long-postponed diplomatic visit back on track after months of delays. Multiple working discussions are scheduled for Friday, and bilateral agreements between the two South American nations are widely expected to be signed during the event, according to local reporting.

As of press time, the Surinamese government has not released any official public statement detailing the visit or its full agenda. Local outlet Starnieuws has confirmed that logistical preparations for the visit are already well underway, with Venezuelan security officials having already arrived in Suriname to coordinate safety arrangements for Rodríguez and her delegation.

Key details surrounding the trip remain under wraps: officials have not yet disclosed what specific agreements will be signed, what core topics will take center stage during bilateral talks, or even the full composition of the Venezuelan visiting delegation.

Rodríguez assumed leadership of Venezuela’s executive branch in January this year, after a dramatic shift in the country’s political landscape. A former vice president under long-time leader Nicolás Maduro, she stepped into the acting presidency after Maduro and his wife were detained during a U.S. military operation inside Venezuelan territory on January 3, and subsequently transferred to the United States to face criminal prosecution.

Since taking office, Rodríguez has overseen a significant warming of diplomatic and economic ties between Caracas and Washington. Her administration has already signed a landmark broad energy agreement with the United States, and has made active efforts to court foreign direct investment into Venezuela’s critical oil sector. Earlier this month, Rodríguez was present for the signing of new cooperation deals between the Venezuelan government and major international energy firms, including U.S.-based Chevron and Italy’s Eni.

This upcoming visit to Suriname was first scheduled earlier this year. Back in June, the Surinamese Cabinet of the President announced that Rodríguez would carry out a courtesy visit to Surinamese President Jennifer Simons on June 23, with a joint press briefing at the Presidential Palace also on the public schedule. However, just days after the announcement, the cabinet confirmed the visit would be postponed without explanation.

Now, Rodríguez’s trip is finally going ahead this week, with a broader scope than the original courtesy visit. Beyond the scheduled working meetings, the diplomatic agenda now explicitly includes the signing of new bilateral agreements between the two neighboring countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Colombia on Tuesday, marking the first stop of his multi-nation tour across Latin America, a trip designed to strengthen ties with pro-U.S. regional leaders and shore up Washington’s long-standing influence in the Western Hemisphere. The visit comes on the heels of a major political shift in Bogotá, after conservative Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella — a U.S.-aligned former lawyer — won recent presidential elections, turning a page on the tense relationship between Washington and his left-wing predecessor Gustavo Petro. Since taking office, de la Espriella has pivoted to a hardline crackdown on drug cartels and organized crime, ending peace negotiations with armed rebel groups that defined Petro’s tenure.

During this visit, Rubio and de la Espriella met in Barranquilla, a key Colombian Caribbean port city, for a signing ceremony that highlighted the deepening bilateral partnership. In the weeks since de la Espriella assumed office, Colombia has ramped up aerial counter-narcotics operations and authorized expanded joint military exercises with U.S. forces. The country has also formally joined the Shield of the Americas, a Trump-administration led alliance focused on combating transnational drug trafficking.

While the official core priority of Rubio’s stop is boosting counter-narcoterrorism cooperation, the two leaders are also set to discuss post-disaster reconstruction following the devastating August 10 earthquake that struck Colombia’s major coffee-growing region. The quake killed more than 330 people and leveled critical public and private infrastructure, prompting de la Espriella to formally request U.S. support, including a temporary suspension of Colombian customs duties to lower reconstruction costs and speed up recovery efforts.

Rubio’s three-nation tour, which will also include stops in Ecuador and Peru, comes amid a sweeping conservative wave across Latin America that has followed Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency in January 2025. In recent years, voters across Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica and Honduras have elected right-wing governments aligned with U.S. policy priorities, creating a favorable landscape for Washington to advance its regional agenda.

The Trump administration has openly stated its goal of reasserting U.S. hegemony in South America, building on the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine and rebranding the framework as the “Donroe Doctrine” in a nod to the current U.S. president. Rubio, a Cuban-American politician with long-standing ties to hardline anti-communist and pro-U.S. regional policy, is the primary architect of this new strategy, which is now enshrined in Washington’s updated National Security Strategy.

After wrapping up his meetings in Colombia, Rubio will travel to Ecuador to meet with President Daniel Noboa, where the two sides will discuss ongoing joint operations to disrupt drug trafficking networks, including the notorious criminal group Los Choneros. The U.S. has already led a year-long campaign of airstrikes targeting suspected drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, a campaign that has left more than 200 people dead and drawn widespread international criticism over insufficient evidentiary standards and widespread human rights concerns.

The final stop on Rubio’s tour will be Peru, where right-wing pro-U.S. leader Keiko Fujimori has held the presidency since July, cementing another pro-Washington government in the region.

On September 9, Asis Gajadien, leader of the VHP parliamentary faction, submitted an urgent formal request to Suriname’s President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, calling for a temporary hold on a planned 15 percent salary adjustment for the Director of General Administration. The core goal of this request is to prevent the pay raise from triggering automatic incremental salary increases for the president and other senior political officeholders, a consequence that would stem from existing statutory linkage rules embedded in current public administration law.

Gajadien has emphasized that his appeal does not target salary adjustments for general civil servants across the public sector. He confirmed that the planned 15 percent pay increase for all other eligible public employees should proceed in full as scheduled. The request exclusively targets the Director of General Administration position due to its unique legal pay linkage to the presidency, a structural connection that has sparked calls for reform.

The parliamentarian sent the urgent letter to the president on Wednesday, routed through Ashwin Adhin, Speaker of the National Assembly (DNA). Under the current legal framework, the president’s official salary is explicitly tied to the pay level of the Director of General Administration. Any adjustment to the director’s pay therefore automatically flows through to the presidency, and under additional separate legal provisions, the change then cascades to set pay for all other political officeholders across the government.

Gajadien argues that this automatic statutory linkage is no longer aligned with principles of good governance. He pointed out that during parliamentary deliberation on the Law on Monetary Provisions for the President, he already proposed amending the legislation to set the president’s salary as a fixed, explicit monetary amount in statute, rather than keeping it dependent on the pay of a career civil service position.

Currently, a private member’s bill is being prepared to permanently end this automatic cross-linked pay system. If passed, the legislation will set the president’s salary as a specific, legally defined amount. Going forward, any salary adjustments for other public administration roles would only serve as an indicative reference point, and would no longer trigger automatic indexing of the presidency’s pay or that of other political officeholders.

Pending parliamentary review and approval of this reform bill, Gajadien is asking the president to issue a resolution to temporarily suspend the 15 percent salary adjustment for the Director of General Administration. This temporary pause would prevent the automatic cascading pay increases for the president and other linked political positions from taking effect ahead of the planned legal change.

Once the private member’s bill is debated and approved, Gajadien notes that the Director of General Administration’s salary can be adjusted in line with general public sector salary trends as planned, without the change automatically impacting the pay of political officeholders.

The VHP faction leader added that the temporary hold would leave the existing legal foundation for the pay system fully intact during the transition period. He has asked the president to consider his request in the broader public interest, citing commitments to greater transparency, proper public administration, and a careful, orderly legal transition to the new pay framework.

On September 9, public health authorities in Suriname announced a key leadership transition at the nation’s Staatsziekenfonds (SZF), the country’s public state health insurance fund. Starting September 15, Minouche Bromet will step into the role of acting general director to steer the organization while formal appointment processes are finalized.

Internal stakeholders have already been notified of the leadership change: SZF staff received word of the transition via an internal memorandum on the same day the announcement was made, and Marciano Djanam, chair of the SZF board of directors, was formally briefed by relevant ministry officials.

André Misiekaba, Minister of Public Health, Welfare and Labor (VWA), confirmed that he has officially put Bromet forward as the nominee for the permanent position of general director of the SZF. This nomination aligns fully with Article 16 of the statutes governing the State Health Fund Foundation, the legal framework that structures the agency’s operations.

The decision to appoint an acting director ahead of final formal confirmation is rooted in a commitment to preserving organizational continuity. With the formal appointment process still requiring final completion, the interim appointment ensures no disruption to the SZF’s core public health services and daily operations. During her acting tenure, Bromet will oversee all day-to-day management of the fund, carrying out her duties in strict accordance with the foundation’s governing statutes.

Bromet’s move to the permanent general director role remains contingent on two key milestones: the completion of all legally required formal procedural steps, and the final approval of Suriname’s Council of Ministers. Once both requirements are satisfied, the nomination will be finalized and Bromet will take on the permanent leadership position.

On September 8, the government of Suriname formally approved a revised 15% pay scale structure for all civil servants and equivalent public sector employees, set to take retroactive effect starting September 1 this year. As the policy rollout approaches, the administration has introduced a landmark protective provision aimed at eliminating unfair disparities in retirement benefits that could arise solely from the timing of a worker’s exit from public service.