Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM
Public officers have secrets for Govt. officials – says Harmon
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament, Joseph Harmon, in an attempt to rationalize Government’s delay in dealing with rampant corruption in several of its entities, is contending that the administration is being “blackmailed”.
That supposition was submitted as the politician highlighted the fact that government has seemingly refused to prosecute several public servants accused and proven to have misappropriated state funds.
APNU’s Joseph Harmon
His specific reference was to the National Communication Network (NCN) scandal and to the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) fraud.
Harmon dubbed it “hypocritical” that the “government talks, so much, about corruption and efforts to stop it; but when it comes to addressing incidents of corruption, they protect and seem to encourage the people who are found to be involved or indulging in corrupt practices.”
Harmon inferred that public officers have secrets for the government.
“It seems as if the government makes an effort to hold on to these people…It’s like some sort of information blackmail…If you deal with me, I will say what I know about you.”
Harmon told Kaieteur News that the opposition is trying hard, to control corruption. He expressed his dissatisfaction at the fact that the opposition was barred from submitting reports of corruption to the OAS delegation that recently visited.
He said that that team ought to have recognized the way the country is poised, it would be a missed opportunity not to speak to the opposition
Alliance For Change (AFC)’s Vice Chairman, Moses Nagamootoo, had informed the media about the dossier on corruption that the party had prepared to hand to the visiting Organization of American States (OAS) delegation.
That dossier contained information about corruption at NCN and NDIA, it was however rejected.
The opposition—both APNU and AFC—has vowed to continue working to minimize corruption in Guyana.
An audit report on the operations of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) has recommended the immediate dismissal of the entity’s boss Lionel Wordsworth and the Senior Section Engineer, Aneel Chowbay, after several instances of fraud and conflict of interest were unearthed.
NDIA, CEO Lionel Wordsworth
The report on fuel consumption and equipment operations and maintenance, was conducted between May and September 2012. It was completed and submitted to the Chairman of the NDIA Board of Directors on September 26, and carbon copied to President Donald Ramotar.
This newspaper was reliably informed that His Excellency has instructed the NDIA boss to respond to the report.
The report concluded that fraudulent acts were committed by Lionel Wordsworth and Senior Section Engineer (SSE) Mr. Aneel Chowbay, in breach of the Procurement Act 2003.
It speaks of conflict of interest and sole sourcing of services such as the supply of fuel and the awarding of contracts to relations of senior NDIA operatives, in breach of national procurement procedures.
However, the only thing that has so far came out of that was the dismissal of the internal auditor.
In the case of NCN, the Company last year June, found itself being probed for financial irregularities. One area of irregularity was traced back to GT&T and involved millions of dollars in advertisements and production costs.
NCN’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mohamed ‘Fuzzy’ Sattaur resigned later the very month after it all blew up in his face.
The company’s Programme Manager, Martin Goolsarran, who admitted that he had deposited the payment cheque from (GT&T) into his personal account, was suspended.
Sattaur and Goolsarran had been granted 72 hours to respond to some of the observations contained in the report, to which they did.
The auditors probe was handed to NCN’s Board of Directors headed by Dr. Prem Misir which in turn; did its own follow up investigation and handed it to the Minister of Information. Kaieteur News understands that it was as a result of several recommendations made to Minister of Information, who in this case is Head of State, Donald Ramotar.
President Donald Ramotar
That probe had similar findings to the initial one and included that there were severe managerial problems at the state-owned company hence, the recommendations which included severing ties with Sattaur.
Since those developments, President Ramotar had promised to make public the Board’s report and take other necessary actions; but nothing of the sort has been done.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Land, taxes and penalties
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News-The American humorist Will Rogers once remarked that the best investment on earth is earth... more
OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus
Antiguan Barbudan Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- The upcoming election... more
Weekend Cartoon
