THE WATER MAN WILL BE BACK AT HIS DESK SOON

Mar 28, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

I have placed a wager that by the time President Bharrat Jagdeo returns from his Middle East trip, Mr. Karan Singh will be back to work at the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI).
Mr. Singh was this week sent off on leave to facilitate a probe into allegations of kickbacks at his entity. Mr. Singh has not been fingered in any allegation but was asked by the Board of the water company to recuse himself from office so as to facilitate the probe.
This is not an unusual situation and no one should point fingers at the Chief Executive Officer since he has not been fingered in any allegation. He has merely been sent on leave so as to facilitate the fraud probe.
The genesis of this situation is not yet fully clear. One report has suggested that a staff member stumbled upon some information on a computer and took it to the Board. Another report indicated that contractors became concerned about demands for kickbacks and got together and decided to act.
Whatever the truth, I would expect that there would be a thorough and independent probe, and that, just like with the Fidelity probe, a multi-agency task force would be established to investigate the charges made.
I do not expect that the Auditor General would be asked to be part of that probe since I do not believe that he can be part of an Executive-sponsored probe, but I hope that given there are allegations amounting to the unintended use of public funds, that the Auditor General would immediately send down his auditors to verify whether there has been any abuse or misuse of public funds.
It is important in this instance that the government commits to an independent investigation and brings in forensic auditors to investigate this alleged fraud. GWI is the recipient not only of taxpayers’ funds. Its project funds are almost totally externally sourced from proceeds from international governments and agencies.
The European Union, the World Bank, the Japanese government, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank will I am sure be watching closely what action is taken since they have over the years pumped a great deal of money into the water sector in Guyana and would wish assurances that there is full accountability and transparency for funds received from donors. These donors must exert subtle pressure on the government to call in a special prosecutor for this matter.
The first task this prosecutor should undertake would be I believe to offer immunity to contractors who may be willing to supply proof and to testify about corruption at GWI. An agreement should be reached with the contractors that in exchange for information and evidence, they will not themselves face prosecution. No contractor is going to come forward and indicate that he paid a kickback unless that contractor is given immunity from prosecution. And this is all the more reason why a Special Prosecutor should head this entire probe.
A Special Prosecutor should also be appointed to file charges against CLICO (Guyana) for breach of the Insurance Act. It is truly perplexing as to why so far the government has failed to move towards appointing a Special Prosecutor to file charges for breaches of the Insurance Act by CLICO (Guyana) in relation to the funds invested in CLICO (Bahamas).
It was only the other day that the President of Guyana was lecturing the opposition about the need to comply with the law as it relates to integrity legislation. The government was insistent then that regardless of the reservations that the opposition had about the composition of the Integrity Commission, that the law must be obeyed.
Well, what goes for the opposition parliamentarians must also go for CLICO (Guyana). That company was found to be in breach of the Insurance Act. This breach caused a situation where massive amounts of investment funds are now impaired.
The law provides for a Special Prosecutor to be appointed to prosecute such breaches. However, the government is strangely not moving towards appointing a Special Prosecutor, a move which in no way prejudices the ongoing judicial administration process.
Perhaps when the President returns and hosts his customary press conference he can answer why CLICO (Guyana) is not yet before the courts for breaching the Insurance laws.

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