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Ramjattan ‘sets the record straight’ on apology

Mar 05, 2010 News

“I felt then and I am now more fortified in my opinion that the Minister breached certain provisions of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act”

Alliance For Change Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan insists that the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) which has at its disposal the entirety of the State broadcasting apparatus has been twisting and giving a massive spin on the recent furor in Parliament which resulted in his apology.
“Such indecent spin has gone so far that within strongholds of the PPP/C, the miscommunication is that I apologised to the (Housing) Minister…Hence, a number of persons seem not to understand to whom and why I apologised…So please allow me to set the record straight.”
According to Ramjattan, on January 11 last, there was a robust session in Parliament, when questions on the Supplementary allocation of $4B were being put to Housing Minister Irfaan Ali. “He wanted approval to spend this huge sum for an ongoing provision of 17,000 house lots for Guyanese.”
Ramjattan said that he immediately became suspicious of some of the answers Ali gave and “his non-answers.”
The AFC MP recalled that at one point Ali ceased answering questions from him (Ramjattan) and Shadow Finance Minister Winston Murray.
“I felt then and I am now more fortified in my opinion that the Minister breached certain provisions of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act.”
Ramjattan said that it was against that background that he requested a copy of the Hansard for that Session and was informed that he would receive it in a couple of days.
“I got same 40 days later…This lateness, too, gave me cause for some suspicion, which as it has, turned out to be was wholly unwarranted, and as such there have been apologies to the Speaker and Parliamentary staff. “
The AFC Chairman said he was served with three volumes of the Budget Estimates on Budget Day and in the Project Profile Volume of three relating to the said $4B, it is emphatically stated, “(and even corroborated by my queries of members of the Finance Ministry), that the $4B under question was indeed spent in the year 2009..So when the Minister came for approval on January 11, 2010, this huge sum was already spent and disbursed.”
According to Ramjattan, the Hansard which he obtained from the Clerk, “however, reflected that the Minister did not spend same in 2009…His answer, at page 53, to the Question from Sheila Holder as to how soon he will be ready to spend the $4B was We are ready.”
Ramjattan said as a result of the Project Profile and senior officials from the Ministry of Finance stating that the monies were already spent in 2009, and the Hansard reflecting otherwise, “I did make the charge to the Speaker, that there may have been some tampering with the Hansard.”
He said that his suspicion was that “We already” had been changed to “We are ready.”
This suspicion and his charge were made in good faith, not with any malicious intent, according to Ramjattan.
“But as to the Minister’s misconduct, which in my opinion constitutes gross criminal liability under section 85 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, I never apologised for and will never.”
Ramjattan said that what Minister Irfaan Ali did when he said on January 11, in the National Assembly that “We are ready” meaning that, “we (Housing Ministry) are ready to spend the $4B it was, “a blatant lie.”
The AFC Chairman pointed out that $4B as is now known (from the Estimates of 2010 Vol 3 page 156) was spent since 2009, “and as we further know, it went to bail out GuySuCo and not for any 17,000 house lots as he was fronting as a pretext.”
Ramjattan posited that, “This kind of misconduct in any other normal democracy would see the dismissal of such a Minister, or if he is kind to his colleagues, his immediate resignation.”
“Instead, at that session, when questioned once again by myself and Mr. Murray, he did the combination of avoidance, evasion and silence…He behaved like a criminal suspect under interrogation…He was indeed caught with his pants down.”

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