Burrowes, Lall, City Hall, hypocrisy and the AG’s Report for 2006

Aug 03, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,

I refer to the article “Burrowes city probe finds widespread financial irregularities” (SN August 1, 2009) and would be grateful for the opportunity to comment. Even though the article is chock full of innuendo and noticeably bereft of money-sum detail, I again sense that the time may well have been reached when the best among us should speak out!

We should immediately note the stunning hypocrisy that Minister Lall’s comments in the above article represent.

For the first time we actually have a Minister’s comments about what should follow an indictment of any agency by the Auditor-General. Lall’s candour is welcome. The implications are enormous.

Hopefully, a national conversation on the phenomenon will now also be facilitated through the article: “Greed, Genocide … and now “Green”: Corruption and Underdevelopment in Guyana” (http://www.scribd.com/doc/17958657/Greed-Genocide-and-now-Green-Corruption-and-Underdevelopment-in-Guyana)

Some issues arising from the story above:

1. Why was a Commissioner necessary after the detail of the Auditor-General’s indictment? Unless Burrowes was being used as a political football to intimidate non-government-friendly municipalities in the run up to local-government elections, it follows that the Minister’s comments signal that a Commission(er) is going to be appointed to investigate every Ministry/Department similarly indicted by the Auditor-General’s report.

But is this a realistic expectation in the face of smothering hypocrisy, and what is by now a complete failure in leadership and credibility?

2. Will Commissioner Burrowes, considering the “excellent” job that Lall says he did at City Hall, now turn his attention to explaining with similar efficiency why the GPHC, which is now a separate entity from the his (Burrowes’) employer the Ministry of Health, continued to use the Ministry’s Cabinet approval (funds) to purchase drugs and medical supplies from specialised agencies both local and overseas, and why $608.4 of Ministry funds was spent on medical supplies which the GPHC cannot account for?

3. Would Commissioner Burrowes offer his professional opinion on the Minister’s comment that “… one of the ways to ensure financial efficiency was to have strict adherence to the annual budgets…” and analyse this against the fact that the Auditor-General has accused that same Minister’s Cabinet of presiding over “political gifts” to Ministries, Departments and Regions that resulted in “… the miscellaneous receipts of $2.053 billion at December 31, 2006 being understated by an undetermined amount…” That same Auditor-General would have advised Minister Lall, courtesy of the AG’s report for 2008, that his Cabinet has not seen fit to transfer the sum of $7.190 billion, representing balances held in 13 special accounts, to the Consolidated Fund. Who is accessing, and utilising, these accounts?

If Commissioner Burrowes or Minister Lall cannot, or are instructed not to, respond to these and other anomalies relating to their functions as public servants, then they need to be reminded that: “…The Fiscal Management and Accountability Act 2003 (FMA Act) provides for the regulation of the preparation and execution of the annual budget, the receipt, control and disbursement of public monies, and the accounting for public monies, and is the most vital legislation governing the transparent and efficient management of the finances of Guyana….”. In other words, Mr. Burrowes and Mr. Lall must now be very proud men … or very confused ones!

We are presiding over a crisis in leadership and credibility in Guyana … and a stunning hypocrisy evident in the disdain for the welfare of entire segments of the population! An entire social policy is being formulated on the nebulous framework of “keeping certain people in their places”.

Quite like Burrowes’ self-centered journey into City Hall intrigue, The Auditor-General and his report for 2006 in the main gave us an insight into the “widespread financial irregularities” perpetuated by Guyana’s government … but will anything come out of it? The only clear thing transmitted here by Minister Lall is that every municipality in the “local government system” not supporting the government will be targeted by erstwhile “Commissioners” … while those toeing the line will be unscathed.

This is the definition of hypocrisy!

Roger Williams

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Burrowes, Lall, City Hall, hypocrisy and the AG’s Report for 2006

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