KAIETEUR NEWS IS UP TO THE CHALLENGE!

Sep 02, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News has raised questions about the cost of a recently opened building renovated by the National Insurance Scheme. It is not the first time, and it will most likely not be the last time that such questions are raised.
For years now, Kaieteur News has been demanding greater accountability in the spending of public funds. It has been carrying a great many stories about how public funds are being spent, how contracts are being awarded, and how public property is being disposed of. At the forefront of this attempt to ensure that the public obtain the answers that it deserves in relation to the use of public funds, the awarding of contracts and the disposal of state assets, has been the publisher of the Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall.
Lall has been the subject of smear campaigns and his newspaper has been unfairly targeted because of simply trying to get answers about what is taking place.
As it so happened, at the said time that the Kaieteur News carried the story about the cost of the latest NIS building, there was a court case taking place in which Kaieteur News was a defendant and Lall was required to be in court. Outside in the corridors, Lall ran into the Chairman of the NIS.
They had a chat about a number of matters, including the cost of the NIS building. Lall came away from that discussion with the understanding that the bills of quantities would be provided to this newspaper to verify the amount spent on the construction of the building.
This of course was no personal concession. Any government serious about transparency would be most willing to clear up any doubts that the public would have by making available the cost estimates for the latest NIS building.
So Kaieteur News was eagerly awaiting the bills of quantities for the NIS building.
Lo and behold, the newspaper is now being told that before that information is provided, this newspaper has to supply the bills of quantities for three houses that it claimed cost under seven million dollars each to build.
Now why this dramatic turn of events? Why is Kaieteur News now being told that it has to provide bills of quantities for these houses before it can learn how public funds were spent on the recently reconstructed building of the National Insurance Scheme?
Is this the PPP’s idea of public accountability? Are they taking the position that public property is theirs and therefore they can set whatever conditions they want for making public the use of NIS funds? Is this what Guyana has come to…that a newspaper, in order to obtain details of spending by a public entity, has to produce its own bills of quantities for funds spent?
Something has to be radically wrong for any administration to behave in such a manner. It smacks of a certain kind of disregard for the people of this country, that instead of itemizing how monies were spent on the newest NIS building, this newspaper has to first produce bills of quantities for three houses before the information can be made public.
Glenn Lall is however always one up for a challenge. When the government decided that it would no longer place advertisements for tenders in the newspaper but would instead advertise solely on a government website, Lall was concerned that many members of the public would not be able to know what was taking place and so at a great sacrifice, his newspaper has run the ads free of cost, just so that the public know what is being tendered for and so can take an interest in how taxpayers’ funds are being spent.
Glenn Lall thought he had a commitment that his newspaper would have been supplied with the bills of quantities to show just how the money for the renovation of that one-flat NIS building was spent. Now he is being told that before he gets that information – which any government serious about transparency should provide without any preconditions – he has to produce bills of quantities of his own.
It is like the government is saying to the people, that before it explains how it spent the money from the treasury, every citizen has to produce a statement detailing their grocery bill. This is the sort of attitude that makes people question just who is the servant of the people and who is the master.
Anyway, Lall is not backing down from the challenge. He is obtaining the bills of quantities for the three houses and will be submitting these. In return, he expects the bills of quantities for the NIS building.
So this matter is far from finished. The ball will be thrown right back into the court of the government, and it will be for them to decide whether it is game, set and match!

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