Jagdeo recalls Greenidge’s record from 25 years ago, but nothing of Ashni Singh’s

Mar 29, 2015 News

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Former President Bharrat Jagdeo demonstrated profound recollection yesterday of the alleged transgressions

under Carl Greenidge when he served as the country’s Finance Minister over 25 years ago. But amazingly, he had no knowledge of the documented reports of financial abuses by Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh.
Jagdeo during an almost one-hour long preamble refuting statements from the opposition, sharply criticized Greenidge, A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Shadow Minister of Finance. He described the opposition member as being the most unaccountable Minister in Guyana’s history.
The former President whined at length about Greenidge saying that when the country’s economy was under his stewardship, the nation was not credit worthy. In fact, he claimed that accounts of the country were not available for auditing for almost ten years during Greenidge’s tenure and as Minister of Finance he incurred the largest rate of external debt for the nation.
He even brought specially for Kaieteur News, a copy of Greenidge’s transport of prime land in Bel Air which he acquired just after demitting office in 1992 for $4 Million.
The former President stressed that while he does not want to venture into the past, Greenidge must face his record.
Along that same line, Kaieteur News asked Jagdeo to take a trip to present day and say when he will ask Dr. Ashni Singh, the current Finance Minister, to face his record.
Guyana’s Auditor General (AG), Deodat Sharma who is considered the guardian of the national purse has

over the years, reported on a number of abuses by Dr. Singh and other government officials which include the misuse of the Consolidated and Contingencies Funds.
Under Dr. Singh’s watch, the AG tirelessly called for the establishment of the Public Procurement Commission and even the implementation of the two modules of the Integrated Financial Management and Accounting System (IFMAS) that have never been used for over ten years. There have been increasing concerns from some quarters that had the two of the seven IFMAS modules been operationalized, a lot of the missing monies, assets and consumables cited in the AG’s Reports would have been avoided.
Jagdeo was also reminded by this newspaper that there has been no prosecution since the introduction of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism legislation in 2009 and compared to other regional and international nations, Guyana’s audited reports are usually over 200 pages when compared to other territories which are significantly less. This point was highlighted by several members of the Public Accounts Committee of the Tenth Parliament, where members said that this reflected the poor state of the country’s accounts.
But instead of telling the media when he would make Dr. Singh face his record of financial abuses, Jagdeo went into a drawn out explanation about the misgivings under Dr. Singh as though some other bizarre force was responsible for it or it simply did not exist.
He said that the Public Procurement Commission is not in place because it encountered several challenges.

He conceded however that more prosecution should have occurred under the anti-money laundering laws but said nothing about his government or Dr. Singh being lax in this regard.
And as for the instances of the abuses of the Consolidated and Contingencies funds Jagdeo said, “I don’t know about any abuses.”
He did manage to recall that there was a recent ruling by acting Chief Justice Ian Chang which said that the $4.5B spent by Dr. Singh without the approval of the National Assembly was indeed illegal.
But in the same breath he noted, “The Minister of Finance has tremendous power under the Act.  You don’t expect him to stop paying wages and salaries if the opposition does not approve monies. Should they shut down the whole public sector? The doctrine of necessity allows him (Ashni Singh) to do that.
As for the point raised on the size of the Auditor General’s reports, the former President said that what the volume of the reports actually indicates to him is that the system is working and it is comprehensive. He said that one must bear in mind that it was the People’s Progressive Party/Civic that took the muzzle off of the Auditor General’s office.
The former President in all his explanations tried to give the impression that Dr. Singh is perhaps “pure and lily white” when it comes to his record.
Though he prevented Kaieteur News from following up on his answers provided, he was later asked by another media entity whether he is trying to paint the picture that Dr. Singh’s record as Minister of Finance is spotless.
To this Jagdeo said, “I think Ashni is a bright young man. I think he has done a great job as Minister of Finance. But he has been the subject of a vicious campaign by several persons because they can’t get their way of shutting down the country so people can’t be paid and projects not funded.
“They have made this about an accountability issue rather (than) procedures. When you have disagreements over procedures, you go to court and they interpret. They made it look like Ashni stole the money …the police have made it clear that if you think he has breached procedures, that is a civil matter. There is no criminal liability and I don’t think he has breached any civil law but they made it look like Ashni is a thief and he is not. He is a person of great integrity… it is a campaign to make PPP/C people look that way.”

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