THE RIGHT CHOICE

Jan 24, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Peeping Tom did not request that the investigation into the alleged illegal importation of beer in Guyana be tabled in the National Assembly. This is clearly a criminal investigation and would be better handled by local State prosecutors rather than the parliament.
Peeping Tom had called for the investment agreement entered into between the Government of Guyana and the proposed investors behind the building of the hotel in Kingston to be laid in the National Assembly.
This is what is required to be laid in the House, not an investigative report that will inevitably become the basis for the laying of charges against those implicated.
The government of course is not doing anything improper by tabling the report; it is merely being disingenuous and engaging in diversionary tactics since the decision to table the report was precipitated by this column’s call for the deals that the government has entered into to be laid in the National Assembly.
Instead of tabling in the National Assembly the terms of the deals made between the government and BOSAI, or the deal concerning the Sanata Complex, or the terms of the sale of Duke Lodge, the government has chosen to table an investigative report done by a multi-agency Task Force into alleged corruption at the Guyana Revenue Authority.
However, now that the Fidelity report has been tabled, I would urge the government to table in the parliament other investigations which are of public interest whether or not done in conjunction with the Audit Office.
I have gone through the Audit Act and can find no provision that allows for the Auditor General to carry out special investigations such as what he was asked to do in respect to the allegations concerning the illegal importation of Polar Beer. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, I will therefore have to agree that there is no legal basis for the Auditor General being part of the team that investigated the beer matter.
If there is anyone who can find the supporting legislation that proves otherwise, I would urge them to point it out.
This columnist is not in favour of the Auditor General being asked to be part of investigations commissioned by the Executive arm of the State. It places him in a difficult position where on the one hand, his office would certainly have an interest in these investigations while on the other hand his office needs to be independent of the Executive.
There is also the aforementioned problem where it does not seem as if the law makes provision for the Auditor General to conduct special investigations of the type which was done by the task force established to look into the allegations of beer smuggling.
The constraints faced by the Audit Office also need to be resolved. The Office is terribly under-resourced and there is need for the present Auditor General to be confirmed in his position so as to have that security of tenure that would allow for greater confidence in the work of his office.
Greater confidence in the Audit Office will also come by avoiding possible conflicts of interests. In the case of the Audit Office in Guyana, the point has been made that a senior staff member of that office is related to a Minister of the Government whose Ministry has to be audited by the Audit office. I hope the persons concerned will make the right choice because we need to reclaim standards in this country, and even though in this instance someone will have to give up their job, it will be the right choice to make.
In colonial Guyana, husband and wife could not work at the same bank at the same time. This often posed a problem for someone who fell in love with a colleague at work. They both knew that to get marry would cost one of them their jobs since this was the rule.
But they understood and respected the rationale behind this rule. This is an example of one of the standards to be reclaimed.
That said, I believe that there are many other reports which should now be tabled in the National Assembly including the report into the missing weapons from the army.
Obviously, also there had to have been an investigation by the Audit Office into the wildlife scam.
The report into this should also be tabled in the National Assembly and then made public. There was certainly, many years ago, an investigation by the Audit Office into the importation of stone into Guyana.
This report should also be tabled in the National Assembly, as should the investigation into the law books scandal for which an investigation was also done.

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