Latest update November 17th, 2024 1:00 AM
May 31, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Just days before the debate on the 2012 budget got underway the TUC sponsored a seminar at its head office in which the discussants were Lincoln Lewis, Christopher Ram and Carl Greenidge. Mr. Ram told his audience that if one examines Guyana’s last census then the total number of persons over sixty five receiving old age pension appears too large. This was Chris Ram speaking in April 2012.
In January 2011, this very perplexing story was raised by the late AFC Parliamentarian, Mrs. Sheila Holder. She alleged that the numbers were inflated and that $1.3 billion was lost to the treasury. Then subject minister, Priya Manickchand, in a posture in Parliament that was unbecoming, answered Mrs. Holder in language that was typical of the deportment of the post-Jagan generation at Freedom House.
For Mr. Ram to bring up the subject again sixteen months later indicates that he is certainly not satisfied with the pyrotechnical explanation of Ms. Manickchand. So is this going to remain a secret cave because no one in Guyana can interpret the last census to arrive at exactly how many persons are over age 65?
The old age pension puzzle is just one of many invisible pages that form the book of Mr. Jagdeo’s Guyana. Mr. Jagdeo is gone but the inscrutabilities remain. He spends his time in an ambience that is mystified. Mr. Jagdeo lives in style that reminds you of the main character in the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Cynics have given the name Pradoville 2 to the villa where Mr. Jagdeo can be found. But how did the President’s men when Mr. Jagdeo was President acquire Pradoville 2?
Only one piece of the puzzle has fallen into the laps of journalists. Roger Luncheon testifying for his then boss, Bharrat Jagdeo, in Mr. Jagdeo’s libel suit against me and this newspaper nonchalantly told the court that he called up his friend, Mr. Mingo in Linden and offered him a house lot in Pradoville 2. So the jigsaw needs to be exposed as to how the other recipients acquired their land in the now infamous or famous Pradoville 2 giveaway.
Perhaps the most intriguing secret that has gripped this nation is who got their money back when CLICO’s share in the Berbice bridge company was bought over by NBS. It was a simple tale without any complications. CLICO became bankrupt. Investors lost their money. NBS came to the rescue. Dr. Nanda Gopaul, famous for his alleged burning of Dr. Jagan’s effigy, the Chairman of NBS told the CLICO investors not to worry. NBS bought out CLICO’s stocks in the bridge.
With the money CLICO got, it paid a number of its victims. But who are these recipients?
I asked Christopher Ram a few weeks ago, if it is not possible with an opposition controlled Parliament to ascertain the identities of those who were paid back. Can’t the relevant parliamentary committee summon Dr. Gopaul and roast him? Does Maria Van Beek know?
This brings us to another dark plot. Who shot Maria? An eminent politician from the opposition benches relayed an interesting conspiracy to me about the attempted murder.
His angle is that Maria Van Beek had come across dangerous material when she was put in charge of the CLICO investigation. That dangerous material had as its main player a very powerful figure.
Apparently, Nadira Jagan-Brancier, Maria’s cousin, is fuming with rage because she knows why her cousin got hurt and she knows who ordered the hit. This explains her acerbic condemnation of those who have inherited Freedom House and her parents’ party. I guess the rule of the PPP is overflowing with conspiracy theories.
Is that the end of the enigmas that grew into mountains under the Jagdeo presidency? We haven’t even touched the surface. Who ordered the throwing of a miasmic substance on me? Who give instructions to beat up Bentcock when he played a Hitchcockian investigator and sought to photograph a swimming pool in Diamond owned by a depraved thug whose official income will only allow him to dream of a swimming pool much less own one.
And talking about pool, there is a huge one in Leonora. How do you investigate that one? Maybe the owner has the same explanation as the lady in Pradoville One. When Mrs. Janet Jagan saw the imported marble from Italy that adorns the interior of this mansion, she walked out.
The lady ran behind Mrs. Jagan and complained that her relatives sent money for her to build it. Mrs. Jagan turned around and queried; “Why didn’t they send it before you became a Minister. You needed it then.”
Nov 17, 2024
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