Irfaan Ali upset about being fingered in ‘corruption’ article

Dec 13, 2011 News

…Prima Facie case established but matter never heard

Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali is accusing Kaieteur News and Alliance for Change (AFC), Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan, of carping on the $4B acquisition of land from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) which was used for housing development.
Ali made that accusation in response to a Kaieteur News December 11 article entitled ‘MPs to pursue jailing corrupt govt. officials’. He also objected to the use of his photograph which he claims boldly suggested that the transaction was questionable.
Ramjattan in the article stated that during the political campaign prior to the November 28 General and Regional Elections, AFC had committed itself to having corrupt Government officials be held accountable.

Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali

Of the many issues, Ramjattan stated will be investigated using the joint Parliamentary majority is the matter involving Ali against whom a prima facie case was made out for contempt of Parliament in relation to misleading the National Assembly on a $4B allocation.
That matter was never heard and according to Ramjattan died a slow death as the Ninth Parliament was dissolved thereby making it next to impossible to have the matter heard again.
Ali contended that Ramjattan should say whether he is against the $4B expenditure to create more than 15,000 house lots for Guyanese, or whether he is against the payment of the $4B to GuySuCo for housing development.
“We have made it clear that the Government through the Ministry of Housing acquired land from GuySuCo to accelerate its housing programme,” he stated.
He said that Ramjattan’s continuous misrepresentation of this fact points to his narrow-minded view of development issues.
It must be noted however that the article which the Housing Minister refers to merely cited that a prima facie case was made out against him in the National Assembly where he purportedly misled the House on the $4B allocation which it was subsequently learnt went to the GuySuCo for land acquisition.
Ramjattan had made good on a promise to seek to have disciplinary action instituted against Ali and Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh when he moved a motion to have the two government officials placed before the Committee of Privileges.
A prima facie case was not made out against Dr Singh.
The action stems from what Ramjattan said was the deliberate misleading of the National Assembly as it relates to a $4B expenditure that was debated in January 2010 in a supplementary request but was later found to have been spent the previous year.
Ramjattan told the House that Ali, during consideration of a Financial Paper, told the House in response to a question from the Late Alliance For Change MP Sheila Holder, that the provision of $4B “is ready to be spent for Housing Development.”
This Ramjattan said was meant to suggest that the monies were yet to be spent.
But subsequently in February last year when the Budget Estimates were produced, it was realised that the monies had already been disbursed since the previous year.
Ramjattan told the Speaker of the House when he presented his motion that when the Estimates of the 2010 Budget were being considered in February the Housing Minister, “evaded, avoided and flagrantly refused to answer questions put to him concerning when exactly the $4B was spent, thereby failing to offer any credible clarification.
Ramjattan in his motion called for the House to signal its unanimous disapproval of Ali’s misleading statement and asked that the matter be referred to the Privileges Committee in keeping with the Parliamentary Standing.
He wanted by way of the motion to have Ali found in contempt of “this Honourable House in relation to the said statement and a determination as to the sanction that should be taken against Irfaan Ali for misleading this Honourable House.”
Then Speaker of the House Ralph Ramkarran in his ruling told the members gathered that a prima facie case was found to be made out against the Housing Minister for him to be committed to the Committee of Privileges.
The Speaker did caution that his ruling did not mean that Ali was guilty of any of the allegations against him but simply that there was enough merit in the accusations to have him be asked to defend himself in that Committee of Privileges.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh who was the target of a similar motion was spared the wrath as the Speaker said a prima facie case was not made out against him and as such that motion was dismissed.
In that motion against Dr Singh, Ramjattan said that the Minister in a Financial Paper in January sought approval for the Supplementary Appropriations of a sum of $6.6B and in that document it was outlined that a sum of $4B was being sought as provision for housing development.
Ramjattan was adamant in his charge that by seeking approval of the National Assembly of this sum of $4B on January 11, 2010, the Minister of Finance was presenting to the National Assembly that the sum was to be spent on a date after the day when the National Assembly would have approved the expenditure.
He again pointed out that when the Finance Minister presented the 2010 budget it was shown that the $4B asked for in January of this year was represented as spent in 2009.
Ramjattan in his motion charged that there is a patent contradiction with regard to the representation of the Minister of Finance as it relates to the $4B expenditure, and as such he should be placed before the Committee of Privileges.
Ramjattan said that “to lie in Parliament is fundamentally a breach of the conventions and privileges…you do not lie to Parliament and that is exactly what they did here.”
He said that what the two Ministers have done was to blow asunder the confidence and credibility of any answers that would be coming from Ministers in the House.