A snake is stinging itself

Feb 27, 2011 Features / Columnists, My Column

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By Adam Harris

It is not often that a government can find something to talk about with some vehemence. Libya’s Muammar Gadaffi is one of those leaders who in recent times have a lot to be vehement about. His country is up in arms against him and it has not been a case of constant protests leading to this massive one.
It must have been some seething discontent that led to this massive protest that followed others in the Arab world that toppled the head of Egypt and really shook up Tunisia and Algeria. In any case Gadaffi, a man I met in September 1980, has been at his most vehement in recent days.
Jamaica’s Bruce Golding was a most vehement head of state when the Americans demanded Dudus Coke. Kamla Persad-Bissesar in Trinidad was also most vehement when she cancelled a contract that she claimed she learnt about in the newspapers.
In Guyana, the government has had a lot to be vehement about. In the first instance there were the nagging criticisms initiated by Kaieteur News over the past few months, ever since the management opted to be the nation’s watchdog.
The first objects of attacks were the contracts that often ended in shoddy work. Kaieteur News decided that the nation needed better for the money being spent across the country. Needless to say, the government concluded that it was being attacked.
The pens came out and the politicians mounted on their soapboxes to attack the newspaper. That battle being well and truly joined eventually resulted in the government doing everything to ensure that its management was transparent. Bids were explained when the senior officials were questioned but there was always the demand for more explanations because not everything appeared to be above board.
And in the midst of all this, up came the Amaila Falls road project. The contractor was named in the person of Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall. The investigations began and all the available evidence suggested that the man was not qualified to undertake the contract.
When the man failed to import his road-building equipment in time there were more probes and more vehemence. However, there is often something to cause distractions, not least among them new projects that appeared to be questionable.
There was the One Laptop Per Family programme which was coming on the heels of the government communication cable from Brazil. The government, with all good intentions, wants to take Guyana into the information technology age. It wants therefore to see that its people are computer literate. But computers, while cheap for many, are outside the reach of the ordinary man. The government wants to change this.
Kaieteur News while supporting the project , wanted to see value for money, and again there were the questions that caused some rancor. One question was about the price of the computers. Well, that appears to be settled because somewhere along the line, knowing the scrutiny, the contractors would not even attempt unreasonable bids.
But there was a lot of dislike for Kaieteur News because as one Government Minister put it, the government has to divert resources to address every issue that Kaieteur News brings to the fore. President Bharrat Jagdeo himself had to get into the defensive mode.
Of course, he criticized Kaieteur News and to a lesser extent Stabroek News, for comments inimical to the reputation of his government. Both newspapers are doing what they know is expected of them. They are expected to keep the government in check.
Yet when the abuse of the newspapers was over, the head of state acknowledged that not enough information on the laptop programme was forthcoming. Their efforts to put the programme on high ground were not enough. Every so often people do something to shoot themselves in the foot and Office of the President did just that.
From that programme has come a fallout. Kaieteur News got information of a bulk purchase in computers and mentioned it. There are some people in organizations who behave as though they are the owners of the organization. They are angrier than anyone else if their organizations are challenged. These are the yard dogs who bark whenever anything that seems to be strange makes an appearance.
One such yard dog barked at the report that the Office of the President bought these twenty computers. The evidence came out and there were red faces. The story changed. “We did not buy those computers for the One Laptop Per Family programme.” No one said that you did.
But in the wake of that brouhaha a woman got sacked. That brought forth more criticisms of Office of the President and more vehemence from the national leaders. The evidence indicated that this was one of the women who signed for the laptops. And it is here that things get murky.
Office of the President issued a statement that suggested that this woman was not a model staff member. The statement said that she asked for lunch money from suppliers and had to be transferred. The statement continued that the woman made an unauthorized entry into the secretariat of the Permanent Secretary and removed four flash drives.
From my point of view, I would wonder why the Office of the President took so long to act on this piece of information. If it was as serious as the staff there is making out, then the woman should have been dismissed ever since.
However, the Office of the President ended the statement with the comment that the woman’s dismissal had nothing to do with what Kaieteur News had to report.
If one is to believe this, then one would have to believe that Office of the President is slow to act on information. Then there was the police search of the woman’s home days after it was reported that she had left the country.
Confusion worst confounded.

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