Is wrong the new normal in Guyana?

Nov 17, 2012 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Chairman of the NIS, Dr. Roger Luncheon, needs to be told there is a distinct difference between spin bowling and spinning. The former may help you take wickets in cricket; the latter could result in dizzying spells that cause you to pass out. Judging from his ongoing lame spins on government failings and transgressions, he has definitely passed out many times in his own mind but somehow manages to keep appearing alert and conscious.
In response to a recent actuarial report that claims the NIS could run out of benefits to pensioners in nine years, Dr. Luncheon defended the NIS Board’s performance, saying that not all the recommendations made in 2007 in the routine five-year report could practically be implemented. However, he subsequently admitted that “greater attention” should have been paid to the recommendations. Talk about dizzying spin!
Then he stoutly defended the NIS’ financial viability (“NIS will not sink,” KN, November 16) by noting it has GY$30B (US$150) in reserves invested in places like the Berbice Bridge, without providing hard financial data showing how much the Berbice Bridge has repaid the NIS since the bridge became operational.
Okay, can he now tell NIS beneficiaries how much money the Berbice Bridge has since repaid NIS so we can know if, based on current traffic trends, the bridge can generate enough revenue to ensure the NIS remains solvent beyond the next nine years? Also, how much actual cash is sitting in the NIS reserves?
Government taking NIS money and investing in income-generating projects is normal universally with pension schemes, but Guyana seems to be in a universe of deception under the PPP and that’s why we have to demand answers and accountability.
For example, when Dr. Luncheon says NIS has investments in ‘places like the Berbice Bridge’, is he not inferring there are other projects besides the Berbice Bridge in which the NIS has invested? We should not let this deception go unnoticed, but demand to know what the other projects are!
Dr. Luncheon was NIS chairman when the institution invested US$30M with Clico (Guy), which experienced a catastrophic collapse in January 2008, wiping out NIS’ US$30M plus an additional US$4M of other depositors’ monies. But long before the Clico (Guy) collapse, the government knew Clico was violating the insurance law – with incremental financial penalties and jail time for violators – limiting local insurance companies to investing only 15% of their local funds overseas. At the time of collapse, Clico (Guy) had invested 53% of its local funds overseas.
Then Commissioner of Insurance, Maria van Beek, repeatedly wrote then CEO of Clico (Guy), Ms. Geeta Singh-Knight, about this violation, which logically meant her boss, the Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, as well as NIS Chairman, Dr. Luncheon and his boss, and President Bharrat Jagdeo, also had to know.
Ironically, Ms. Singh-Knight is also the Chairman of the Berbice Bridge Project, and ironically it was Jagdeo who became the principal spokesman of Clico (Guy) as it collapsed, even ensuring it was placed under Bank of Guyana supervision without an independent probe.
That the government knew Clico (Guy) was breaking the insurance law and did nothing to stop it was unacceptable, but to also know that US$30M of NIS money was at stake and then tried to cover-up the misdeed – deception – when Clico (Guy) collapsed is unforgivable. I deliberately rehashed all of that to show why Dr. Luncheon’s assertion that NIS has reserves invested in places like the Berbice Bridge Project deserves to be immediately investigated. We simply cannot trust these people anymore, fellow Guyanese!
In fact, not only can we not trust them anymore, but the debilitating crisis of confidence in government they have spawned, has reached the stage where the parliamentary opposition, the private media and all concerned stakeholders have to take a collective stand and confront the government, which belongs to all Guyanese and not the PPP. We badly need a revival of a GUARD-type movement because we are right back to pre-1992 in worse ways!
Some people thought President Donald Ramotar, would at least chart a new course after November 28, 2011, but he recently made it clear that Jagdeo’s policies and positions were a reflection of the PPP’s. So here we are less than two weeks away from Election Day anniversary, and the problems that pre-dated Ramotar’s ascension to the presidency are still with us and getting worse.
We all know what is wrong, but what are we going to do about it, besides reading and complaining to each other about the excuses to cover-up or explain away the wrongs with no recourse to corrective actions? Is wrong the new normal in Guyana?
Unless there is an end-game plan by those, other than the corrupt regime, to end this madness passing for governance, might as well the parliamentary opposition give up demanding accountability and transparency, the AG stops auditing accounts, newspapers cease reporting the ongoing mismanagement, murders and mayhem, and we await whatever fate has in store for the people in our once dear and great land of Guyana that is now a political mud-land. Talk about being stuck on stupid, see the PPP!
Emile Mervin

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