Dr Anthony must answer some questions

Apr 09, 2014 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I missed the bulk of Minister of Culture Dr. Frank Anthony’s speech, including some of the specifics of his plans for the Caribbean Press.  My routine check of the Press ‘website’, however, has informed me that in addition to the books promised by Reverend Gideon Cecil, and the speeches by Desmond Hoyte, along with books by local writers Pearl Lewis, Andrew Hutson and Portia Dodson, no mention is made of the collection of short fiction said to be due to be  launched last year.
But we have become accustomed to Dr. Anthony running from questions on assurances he has given in every aspect of his portfolio.
With every attempt at obfuscation and deflection that Dr. Anthony and Caribbean Press Editor Dr. David Dabydeen engage in, a stronger case is made that this mechanism needs both an extensive investigation on how it is governed, and a detailed financial audit.
I’d like to draw attention to a claim made in a letter by John Mair last year, and one which has not been corrected by either the Minister or Dr. Dabydeen:
“The Caribbean Press was set up in 2008 after noted regional writers like Derek Walcott petitioned then President Jagdeo at Carifesta. Since then it has published 59 titles and 38 more are in preparation   30,000 copies of books in total.
“All, bar author copies and Austin’s bookshop copies (which I hope I helped to facilitate) have been given to schools and public libraries in Guyana. All titles are available for free download on the Press website.”
However, every single Caribbean Press launch or display event has featured a handful of books at best, and asked in Parliament last year to provide exact information on the number of books actually in the country, the Minister could not, despite being aware of the questions weeks in advance.
It is my understanding that a small number of copies of the books ‘edited’ by Reverend Gideon Cecil and Petamber Persaud are currently in country, but that the bulk of the books will only be in country around June this year, at which time the titles will be launched, no doubt with much fanfare and rhetoric from Dabydeen.
The question to be asked, though, is if the pre-print production of these books fell within budgetary year 2013-2014, and some printed copies of the books are available, why would the Minister and Dabydeen wait until well into the budgetary year for 2014-2015 to bring in the rest?
The timing of the launch of these books only until mid-year is cause for serious concern because, all things taken into consideration, it appears that the Minister has printed a few books for show but is waiting until after what he presumes to be approval of the Sports and Arts Development Fund to print the rest.
Also, what appears at least circumstantially is that the Caribbean Press is producing a small number of copies of books on demand, and not the 400 copies per title as Dr. Dabydeen has repeatedly said is the print run per title.
Digital on demand printing has proven to be the economical choice for small presses like the Caribbean Press because traditional offset presses usually require a minimum print run of a few hundred copies while digital printing gives you the flexible option of printing 4 or 40 or 400 copies at a relatively low cost per copy.
This scenario would explain several things: the ability of the Ministry to have a small number of copies in hand early in the year, with the rest slated to arrive a few months after; the limited number of titles available at the National Library; the limited number at Austin’s; the lack of evidence that the books are in the school system at the numbers claimed; the insistence on printing the books overseas since no local printer offers digital on demand printing; and, most importantly, the Minister’s embarrassing avoidance of answering questions on the number of copies in country.
And if it is that the Caribbean Press is printing less than the stated number of books, not only does this call into question the credibility of the principals involved, but also raises red flags about the Minister’s claims about expenditure on printing.
The business of producing books is a very straight-forward one in terms of record-keeping – you have specific prices for editorial services, and paperwork to support same; you have specific numbers of copies printed and specific costs per copy; you also have specific costs for shipping; and you have a system in place to track distribution and sale.  Despite this, absolutely nothing that the Minister has claimed with regard to expenditure has been substantiated by documentation.
I strongly advise the Parliamentary opposition, the AFC in particular, as a pre-condition for approving any monies related to the Caribbean Press, require that the Minister provide:
·      The company or companies used to print the Caribbean Press publications.
·      The method of printing – digital on demand or [web] offset printing.
·      The method of distribution to schools [a question that should also be posed to the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, who by her silence has affirmed that this distribution is indeed factual, despite her Book Distribution Manager last year reportedly never receiving any of the books for that purpose.]
·      The exact expenditure on printing so far with a detailed breakdown of printing costs associated with each individual title, with accompanying proof of payment.
·      The names, salaries of the person/people who provided secretarial services to the tune of $7.85M from 2009-2012 and proof of payment.
·      The names of the person/people/business who received a total US $57,600 between 2010-2012 and proof of payment.
·      Quotations, invoices, bank transfer information, receipts; delivery notes and other relevant documentation to support the Caribbean Press’ narrative.
When you consider that both Drs. Dabydeen and Anthony have effectively forged ahead despite both ‘recognizing’ the need for and assuring the implementation of an oversight mechanism, the question should be raised why this is not being done.
More than half a year ago, at the Guyana Prize awards, President Donald Ramotar himself assured that a Board would be put in place to oversee the Caribbean Press yet here we are.  At this point in time, this is looking increasingly less like trying to save face in light of the exposure of the Minister’s incompetence and more like the cover-up of what I strongly believe only an investigation and audit would reveal.
Taken all the money that has gone into the Caribbean Press so far, much more than the $3.9 million that is at the centre of the NCN scandal, and taking into account that the same Minister has strongly resisted any public audit insight into at least two enormous mismanaged projects under his watch, Guyana’s hosting of Cricket World Cup 2007 and of CARIFESTA 2008, I would consider it basic fiscal responsibility to probe precisely how the Caribbean Press has handled expenditure.
If the political opposition fails in its duty to demand due fiscal accountability from Dr. Anthony on this, I will personally be filing a request for the accounts of the Caribbean Press under the Freedom Of Information Act.
And that is just a start since a more than lingering examination of Anthony’s handling of both governance and expenditure over every single year of his tenure is troubling at best.
Ruel Johnson

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