They must tell us about the $90M

Mar 06, 2012 Editorial

The General Elections were held on November 28, 2011 but before that date there were certain preparations that warranted money. The Guyana Elections Commission had to be funded to execute such programmes as voter registration, securing ballot paper and other elections paraphernalia and of course, things for both the permanent and temporary the staff.
The government also committed for other things, not least for the security services to work in the days immediately before and after the elections. The government has always been leery about the post elections period and for good reason. In 1992 there was violence sparked by people who were disenfranchised.
When the results were declared some people took to the streets. Hapless citizens were beaten and robbed. Fear gripped the city. Then vigilantes came out and one woman was shot so seriously that to this day she is still suffering from the bullets that lodged in her body.
Things got even worse in 1997. There was even more violence. The worst post-elections violence occurred in 2001. Fires broke out in the city and it was sometime before peace prevailed. These things the government did not forget so it put measures in place across the country. It was not going to sit idly by while disgruntled people sought to force a change in the result of the polls.
Things were quiet in 2006 and again last year. But one never allows complacency to take control. The government insists that it is always better to be prepared than to fail to do so and watch some serious development. For last year the government, as it has been doing for as long as there have been elections in Guyana, decided that the police would be ready for any eventuality.
President Bharrat Jagdeo announced that he would allocate $90 million for food and transportation to the police. It turned out that this sum never reached the police and here there are many questions, none of which is being answered.
This matter would have passed unnoticed had it not been for some divisional commanders who recognized that their men had to be fed. The Commissioner’s suggestion was that the men live off the land—rely on businessmen in the communities in which they were operating. In short, they were expected to beg for food.
This, some commanders found to be a most ridiculous suggestion. Should the police have to beg the people, particularly the business community, then they would have found themselves in a most compromising position. How could they arrest a businessman who helped them in their time of need?
We do not know how the policemen survived, but we do know that they never got the $90 million. Kaieteur News has been following this story about the non-disbursement of the funds. Its reporters have been asking questions but getting no answers.
A sum of that magnitude simply could not have disappeared into thin air. We would like to believe that if the Ministry of Finance never released the funds the Commissioner of Police would have made such an announcement. Further, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would have taken the newspaper to task.
Kaieteur News is no stranger to the attacks from the government. When there were no such attacks over the disclosure that $90 million was missing, there was speculation that some prominent people had made off with the money. And with each passing day this seems to be the only logical answer.
President Donald Ramotar addressed the annual police officers conference and the issue never surfaced. One would have expected the very officers to raise the issue because they knew how they suffered during the elections.
The Police Commissioner also addressed the forum and he made no mention of the fact. But the Home Affairs Minister was critical of those divisional commanders who dared to make public comments on the issue.
The nation has long been made aware of rampant corruption in the government circles. In fact there is the belief that thieving public funds is now an approved pastime for people with access to such funds. No one has been charged within recent times.
We need to know what happened to the money allocated to the police for their elections duty.

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