EXECUTIVE FOOT DRAGGING

Aug 31, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Fabrication comes from the verb which is spelt F-A-B-R-I-C-A-T-E and means to invent or makeup for the purposes of deception.

At the recent dinner hosted by the Private Sector Commission, the President of Guyana accused the Kaieteur News of fabricating the news. This means he is saying that Kaieteur news is inventing or making up the news for the purposes of deception.

The President was even smart enough to give an example of the alleged fabrication by this newspaper. He said that we had reported that a rank from the Coast Guard had claimed that he was at Lindo Creek, even though the military reported that the man was never part of the unit that was hunting for Fineman.

This newspaper reported what the Coast Guard rank had said and we also in the same report carried the denial by the Coast Guard, so where is the fabrication? We did not invent the man saying this. Neither did we invent the denial. So it is not Kaieteur News that is fabricating anything.

Now the man may have had his own reasons for saying this but there is no disputing what he said just as there is no disputing the denial made by the military.

During the trial of Robert Simels, we reported on some of the accusations made in the Court room. One of the things reported was that a minister of the government had facilitated the importation of certain sophisticated equipment on behalf of Roger Khan. This was not fabrication. This was said in the Courtroom.

We also reported that the minister at the center of the controversy has consistently denied the allegations. Did we fabricate that? No, the minister is on record of making the denial and the President is on record of saying that he asked the minister and the minister denied any involvement.

The truth is either one or the other or neither. It is either that what was said in the Court is true or what the minister said was true, or both are untrue and there is some other explanation.

But both, what was alleged in the courtroom and what was said by the minister cannot be true at the same time. Either one is true of neither of the two versions is true. There is some fabrication somewhere but the reporting by the newspaper is not a fabrication because it is simply reporting what was said.

The only way to get to the truth is to have a credible inquiry, something that the government is dragging its foot on. It also dragged its feet when the allegations against the Disciplined Services surfaced.

In fact when you examine the recent history of this country, it is a history of executive foot dragging on matters which in many parts of the world would have automatically led to commissions of inquiry.

The very purpose of these inquiries is to find out what happened or to produce an investigation that would satisfy the public confidence.

We have had the crime wave on the East Coast, the massacres of Lindo Creek, Lusignan and Bartica and yet the Jagdeo administration has been reluctant to order an inquiry. This is something that is unthinkable in modern day history.

Why pick on this newspaper when it is the governments own failings to do what is right and proper that has led to this situation in which we find ourselves today? Why the reluctance to investigate? Why the reluctance to have a credible investigation into all the above incidents.

Why the reluctance to order an investigation into the award of contracts under the Drainage and Irrigation Sector? Why the reluctance to investigate the assets of those within this sector?

Why instead of responding to the questions posed in this newspaper articles, the Ministry of Finance is asking this newspaper to consider tendering for government contracts? Why?

Who is fabricating? Who is deceiving the public? Certainly it cannot be Kaieteur News. We have opened the eyes of the public to what is taking place and we notice that other newspaper are now taking up what we started.

Instead of pointing the accusatory finger at Kaieteur News, the President should be concerned about the real fabrication: the one that is taking place in respect to the prices tendered for certain contracts because, as this newspaper has revealed, some of these prices are being invented and made up, not to deceive but to rob the taxpayers of this country. Now there is a word for that!

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