Who is speaking the truth – Minister Webster or Dr. Luncheon?

Dec 09, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
By the time one finishes reading this letter, the PPP Government would have borrowed more money in the name of the people to squander on another “Highway to Nowhere” Project like the now failed white elephant Skeldon Sugar Factory, the idle Enmore Packaging Plant, the dried-up Amalia Falls, the unfinished Marriott Hotel, and the dilapidated  Supenaam Stelling, among others.
Their most recent plan was to rob the taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars in the disguise of trying to provide a Solid Waste re-cycling GHOST Plant that they claimed would have cost US$30 million when more accurate estimates have shown that the actual cost would have been US$6 million.
Most of the PPP-driven MoUs and Agreements since the Jagdeo/ Ramotar cabal took over, would have failed proper scrutiny of any Public Procurement process.
Can anyone imagine what G$190,000 could have done for a program to re-house that mother in Plastic City so that her children can have a complete night’s rest without having to worry if the rain will wet them because of their leaky roof?
This is the kind of poverty issues that people like Minister Jennifer Webster and her cabal cannot identify with; resulting in them only callously thinking of their pockets and their rich friends rather than the people—the poor and the working class.  It is brave of Dr. Roger Luncheon to expose the fibs told by Ms. Webster and Mr. Ramsammy but it would be wise for him to watch out; the Jagdeoites have got their eyes on him now.
Dr Luncheon made it clear that Minister Webster “was present at a number of cabinet meetings where the subject of the Solid Waste recycling plant was discussed.”
Dr. Luncheon also stated that the Minister at no time excused herself from those meetings and she did not inform the President or the cabinet of her daughter’s involvement in the recycling company.
This is a classic case of conflict of interest and public corruption; where someone uses one’s office (one’s meetings) and position of influence in an attempt to enrich oneself with insider information.
Nowhere in the world would a solid waste facility, designed to meet similar needs like what was proposed for Guyana, cost G$6 billion. So we want the Minister of Local Government to tell the nation who would have benefited from all these extra billions if Kaieteur News did not catch this determined attempt to defraud the people of hundreds of millions of dollars?
Minister Webster has all right to be “visibly upset” and to blame Kaieteur News for making the information public, but the fact is, she has only herself and her daughter to blame for not speaking the truth.
It is now a public fact that only under a weak and corrupt Ramotar administration, will people of such flawed character remain in cabinet. Mr. Ramotar should have fired the Minister because as the old adage says, “you made your bed and you have to lie on it.” Ms. Webster is responsible for her own problems so she should stop blaming Kaieteur News and others for them.
But more importantly, how can the people have faith and confidence in Minister Webster to clean up the rotten Pension System? From the inception of her term in 2011, the Auditor General has been calling for this Minister and her Team to:
1. Update the Pensions Register to remove all those who have died.  What has Minister Webster done? Nothing!
2. Enter the numbers of the pension book in the Pensions Register as a means of tracking fraudulent acts of mis-allocation of pension books to crooks.  What has Minister Webster done? Nothing!
3. Enter the month the books were dispatched to establish the total expected charge on the Treasury per pension book. What has Minister Webster done? Nothing!
So in essence, there is a do-nothing minister in one of the most important ministries—Social Services where very little has been done to help abusive children and mothers who face danger every day from their spouses. All the minister does is to react when a woman is murdered in domestic violence disputes.
Is this the kind of Minister the people want in charge of this G$10 billion portfolio?  There are clear loop holes like “the dead and the under-aged” collecting pension, but under Minister Webster’s leadership, anything allegedly goes.
But Guyana would have never been in this mess if we had a President who understood his role and is not willing to be a second fiddle to Jagdeo.
In fact, we have a president who is very slow to act but is quick to blame the opposition for his failures, including corruption, crime, unemployment and the recent floods, to name a few.
This is total insanity by this regime? President Truman’s famous words that “the buck stops with the president” are totally irrelevant to Mr. Ramotar and his elitist PPP cabal.
It appears in Guyana that the buck stops with Jagdeo but he is famous for cussing down the media and his critics and for never taking any responsibility of his actions, thus Guyana continues to sink and we have no one to hold responsible.
The goodwill President Ramotar gained in his first year from the people has now vanished into thin air; because of his gross incompetence and inability to deal with the corrupt Ministers in his Team.  The time is long overdue for serious surgery on the Ramotar cabinet but we are advised that is an exclusive decision for Jagdeo. Poor Ramotar!
We remain convinced that someone like Dr Vindya Persaud would be a more capable Minister of Human Services than this MoU specialist currently in the position.
We call on all Guyanese regardless of their ethnicity to stand-up and defend their dignity and that of the country against this corrupt, uncaring, anti-working class and wicked regime. People, wake up! rise up and take back our beautiful Guyana.
 Dr. Asquith Rose and Harish Singh

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