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KAIETEUR NEWS SAVES THE DAY!

Nov 23, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

 

One of the things that you have to admire about Glenn Lall, the publisher of this newspaper, is that he never loses hope. Despite the slow pace of change that has taken place under the Ramotar administration, despite the overwhelming temptation to concede that no matter what is exposed in the Kaieteur News, things remain the same, Glenn continues to battle on firm in the conviction that change for the better will come.
He continues to believe he and his newspaper are making a difference. This week there was evidence of this difference when in the face of another masterful piece of investigative journalism by Glenn, and the reporters of Kaieteur News, the government backpedaled on a Memorandum of Understanding it had signed with an investor.
This week, change did come to Guyana. It is highly unusual for the ruling People’s Progressive Party to rescind an agreement that it had entered into and more so when that agreement initially had the blessing of Cabinet.
It was Cabinet which, we were told, had initially baptized the MOU that was signed between the government and a company for the establishment of a recycling plant. Soon after this announcement was made, Kaieteur News discovered that the proposed investors had never built any similar facility and that a relative of a Minister of the government was act on the Board of Directors of the company.
The Minister later explained that at the time the matter came before Cabinet she was on travel leave and that in any event she was unaware of her daughter’s association with the firm.
Following the revelations in the press, the government has taken a decision to rescind the MOU with the investor. This is a very good sign coming from the ruling administration which in the past would have gone on the defensive and adopted an inflexible approach towards this issue.
This is an important development within the ruling administration and shows that change is possible, at least a change of mind. It is a commendable step by the ruling administration which should now go back and do a forensic examination of where it had erred.
Cabinet needs to ask itself a number of questions. First of all, did it satisfy itself about the credentials of the firm concerned? Was Cabinet satisfied that proper checks were done on the credentials of this company and its source of financing?
Did those checks unearth the evidence as uncovered by Kaieteur News concerning the experience of the firm and the fact that one of the members of the Board of Directors was related to a Minister of the government.
It is important that this sort of self- examination by Cabinet not be avoided because it has implications for other proposals which may be laid before the administration. The principal policy making body of the government must ensure that whenever a proposal comes before it that there is adequate disclosure and that if that proposal concerns an investment that the proper background checks on the company and its principals were done.
It is a good thing that the MOU has been rescinded but it would be much better if Cabinet avails itself of the opportunity to determine whether the process that led to the signing of an MOU benefitted from due diligence or whether it was made without the requisite care and attention that should be involved.
While a MOU is not per se a contract to do anything but merely signaling the potential for such an engagement, Guyana has been burnt in the past by commitments made under previous MOUs which in one instance gave to a developer exclusive rights over a project.
The developer turned around and sold those rights for millions of US dollars and still stands to benefit should the project go ahead.
The second implication for Cabinet is that it should now have second thoughts about the way it sees the media and particularly Kaieteur News. This newspaper provided a great public service to the country by its exposure of the recycling deal. Hopefully, recognizing the value of this service provided by Kaieteur News would allow the government to rethink its relationship and antagonism with this newspaper.
Kaieteur News is not in the business of being liked by anyone. But at least the government should through this incident recognize the very important role that the Fourth Estate plays as an oversight body and how helpful the media can be towards avoiding problems.

 

 

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