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Where secrecy prevails

May 08, 2010 Editorial

In any situation where the information disseminated is not pleasing to someone or some organisation the reaction is to ignore the message and to kill the messenger. In ancient times, rulers have been known to kill the bearer of bad news. It would seem that since then, precious little has changed.
Kaieteur News has been reporting on the road aspect of Amaila Falls hydroelectric project, particularly the aspect that deals with the award of the road contract. Investigations revealed that the contractor may have been favoured by the government given his known track record. However, the relevant information has not been forthcoming.
It is known that this contractor has been selected by the government for previous engagements and that he failed to honour the agreement. There may have been extenuating circumstances however the nation needed to know. There was nary a word and one could conclude that because the question was not asked the government simply did not tell.
It is the same with the Amaila Falls project. The award of the contract took many by surprise. The government says that there were advertisements, and that the process was as transparent as it could be. This, for some, was not enough given the level of what passes for journalism in Guyana. If the truth be told, there was hardly a reporter who saw the advertisement for the award of the tender for the road contract.
For sure, they did not see the report that a new entity was awarded the contract for the construction of the hydroelectric site. The government said that it did make such announcements through the state media. But given the magnitude of the project and the sum involved, one would have expected a formal announcement, generally through a press conference or a press briefing.
Then there should have been constant briefings since the quality of reporting does not permit investigative journalism. In the absence of information people tend to fill in the gaps with whatever information that comes their way, once the information sounds plausible. It is this that makes people believe rumours that have not one iota of truth.
But for all this, the global village created by the internet and other electronic means has provided a means for people to learn much more; to challenge statements by officials if those statements appear to run counter to other information that is readily available. And so it is with Fip Motilall.
The government says that he has a record of constructing roads; other information suggests that nothing could be further from the truth. The government then becomes angry when the latter information is published. It now turns out that the contractor could have been awarded the contract provided he hired people with the track record of road building. It seems that Motilall falls into this category.
One government official now says that he has no confidence in Kaieteur News and that he would refrain from making any comment or issuing any information to this newspaper. He describes the newspaper as negative and an instrument that is only interested in hatchet jobs.
This is a clear case of killing the messenger and not addressing the message. This is a case of deliberately withholding information or trying to obfuscate the issue. And it could be allowed in Guyana because there is no Freedom of Information Act. Knowledge about issues and events is disseminated at the whims and fancies of the rulers. Newspapers, then, are expected to operate within those confines.
President Bharrat Jagdeo has been perhaps the only official who discloses anything when asked. This represents a confidence in the undertaking that has his blessing. He has been known to admit that people have been less than honest in the execution of some projects.
But others closely related to any project should be the people to disseminate information. Perhaps it is that they prefer secrecy which offers them an opportunity to divorce themselves from failures. If that is the case then this may explain why there seems to be a reluctance to have a Freedom of Information Act.
Conditions such as what operate in Guyana led to a Freedom of Information Act in the United States as far back as 1966. Guyana remains locked in the past.

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