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JUICY WEDNESDAYS

Jul 31, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Wednesdays are revelation days. Each Wednesday, the government takes to a press conference and the main attraction is some alleged act of wrongdoing committed by the former government.
People now eagerly look forward to these weekly press briefings to hear what will be the next revelation. There are other things reported, but the main billing is the little juicy story (or stories) about who did what during the time of the previous administration.
There is a pattern to these revelations. They are given in small doses. Audits are going on, but while these audits are going on the government is stumbling on things, or so we are told.
First, there was the case of a large number of vehicles in which there were attempts to transfer. So far charges have been laid only in relation to a few. So what has happened to the others?
Then we read that the Lands Registry was in a mess. The Head of that unit was sent off. One would have assumed that there would have first been an investigation and findings before any action was taken against anyone.
The following week, we learnt that there was an alleged scam involving fuel from GuyOil. Later someone was sent home. Persons were asked to repay for the illegal fuel they took. To date no update has been given as to if this has been done or whether charges are to be laid.
Then the next week we read about the PetroCaribe Fund. The resignation of a member of the Guyana Rice Development Board was accepted. It is still to be explained what the Guyana Rice Development Board had to do with the uses or misuses of the PetroCaribe Fund.
Then the next week we heard that some persons connected with the Guyana Power and Light had made large payments to themselves. One of those persons was sent on leave.
I am not convinced that persons at GPL could have, without proper authorization, transferred large amounts of money to themselves. There has to be some explanation. Hopefully that will come soon.
Now, we are reading that some audit has found that a large sum of money was transferred from the Public Service Ministry into an account. I do not understand how something like that could have happened. Anyone familiar with government accounting knows that for this to happen, a cheque would’ve had to have been issued by the Ministry of Finance. It is hard to see how this could have happened.
A great many of these revelations seem premature. It would have been much better if the government had waited on the completion of the audits that are taking place and then acted on the reports. If these little snippets are emerging out of the audits, then this would raise a number of other questions.
By the way, were these audits publicly advertised? Or were they handed out to handpicked individuals? I have not heard the country’s accounting bodies make any comments on this. The National Procurement Act provides that there has to be bidding for the provision of government services. So was there bidding for the provision of these forensic audits that are taking place all around?
Hopefully, some of our enthusiastic journalists can ask these questions, as the media corps awaits the latest piece of juicy news as to what other act of maladministration was discovered.

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