Latest update November 5th, 2024 1:00 AM
Improprieties at the national and regional levels continue unabated
…as GAWU files libel lawsuit against AFC chairman – Ramjattan
One of the Food for the Poor houses.
The Alliance for Change has said that improprieties by officialdom continue unabated both at the national and regional levels.
According to Party Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan, the AFC has in its possession confirmed information that was sent in to the party that two Region Two officials, on the Essequibo Coast, requested of and were each given a house by Food for the Poor.
The Party Chairman noted that a number of houses were constructed by this charitable organisation at Lima Sands, Essequibo recently, and these houses were intended for poor people in the area and its surroundings, “not for the Chairman and his Vice who are known to be men of substance in the region…The AFC demands that the two houses be given back to Food For The Poor for redistribution to those needy people they were intended for.”
The Party Chairman also accused the Agriculture Minister of improprieties.
According to Ramjattan, Minister Robert Persaud has removed from his personal house at Eccles, East Bank Demerara, and relocated himself at a Government house along Lamaha Street.
He added also that millions of dollars of repairs had to be done to the house to bring it to the desired state the Minister wanted it to be.
“GuySuCo obliged, notwithstanding its serious financial predicament. This financial predicament, it recently argued successfully before the Gobin Ganga Arbitration, cannot make it pay sugar workers more than six per cent increase in wages when their demand was for 14 per cent.
GuySuCo, in a release to the media, stated that Persaud did not live in Herdmanston House and that he did not occupy any building belonging to GuySuCo or has the Corporation expended any money on any living accommodation for the Minister.
“This clarification is needed in light of false statements issued by Ramjattan at a press briefing (on Wednesday)…Moreover, Herdmanston House itself is being given up by the Corporation for use as either an embassy or a residence of an Ambassador…
“This will bring income into GuySuCo rather than being a cost centre…GuySuCo is currently looking at ways in which it can further save costs and make it more cost conscious and effective.”
GAWU SUES RAMJATTAN
And Ramjattan told media operatives that the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union has instituted legal proceedings against him and the owner of Channel Eight in Berbice, Tommy Rambarran.
The libel action seeks millions of dollars in damages.
The issue, according to Ramjattan, stems from statements made by him on the very popular Dr. Ramaya’s show, ‘Issues of the People’.
The AFC Chairman said that he is of the view that the entire purpose behind the litigation is to dissuade Channel 8’s owner from allowing the AFC to voice its opposition views and positions.
“It is a device to shut out the AFC from disseminating its perspective in Berbice at this time when Berbicians want to hear the AFC…There is absolutely no merit in the proceedings as everyone and every sugar worker knows of the almost incestuous relationship between the PPP and GAWU, its industrial arm.”
He noted that the litigation will be vigorously defended, and a number of lawyers have already offered their services.
According to Ramjattan, the litigation comes in the context of increasing support by sugar workers to dissociate from GAWU, noting that over the past several weeks hundreds of sugar workers in Berbice have been signing onto forms which demand that GuySuCo cease deducting union dues from their weekly pay-packets, and to cease remitting same to GAWU.
“The signing of these forms by sugar workers signals a major dent in the support of GAWU…The purpose is to voluntarily dissociate from GAWU, which the workers say is not giving them any genuine representation anymore…They feel that GAWU is more concerned with protecting the PPP/C Party and Government in power, than struggling for the rights of workers.”
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