Manzoor Nadir defends Marcia Nadir

Jul 12, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor;
It was very disgusting to read the above article (KN Papers of Sunday July 10 2016). Your newspaper continues to unapologetically besmirch the integrity of people and convict them by presenting one-sided and carefully concocted stories. You also use your paper to feed frenzies, to grind axes and to execute political agendas.
This article makes criminal conviction a fait accompli by presenting biased, inaccurate and partial information as fact. The article begs the question of professional ethics; of bribery by KN for information and even the question of government’s political vendetta. Just as KN did in its attack on the Hon. Joseph Harmon, it again went on its tirade with flawed article, here is a simple example. Quoting the KN article it says
“back-up hard drive on which documents are stored by NICIL revealed that the minutes for the years 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2011 and 2012 were all created on November 2, 2015.“ Concluding that the minutes were all generated the same day. I am flabbergasted! Any ICT student would testify that backup drives, especially if the date is set to automatically update every time you back up would show the date the files were backed up.
Anand Goolsarran stated in his audit report that he got the minutes and he finished his field work in August 2015, more than three months before KN said the minutes were generated. “I concluded the field work on 31 August 2015 and submitted the draft report to the Executive Director of NICIL who provided a response on 19 October 2015.I then finalized my report and submitted it to the Minister Finance on 26 October 2015, copied to the Chairman of NICIL’s board, the Minister within the Ministry of Finance, and the Financial Secretary” (Goolsarran’s report p.12 ttp://finance.gov.gy/images/uploads/documents/nicil_audit_report.pdf)
I thus would say no more on the contents of this article and now leave KN to wallow in its own folly. However, the article is interesting because of the KN motives for such wicked article. From whose mouth did this information come? How did KN come by its information? Did KN buy the information in the article or created it? If it’s the police legal advisor or the investigators then there is a serious breach of professional ethics by discussing client’s business with KN. Will the Commissioner of Police investigate or will the Ministry of the Presidency, the defacto head of SOCU, so order? President Granger, Vice President Ramjattan, Minister Harmon and the Commissioner of Police must be concerned about the fact that KN is supposedly quoting from the work of the investigators.
Marcia Nadir Sharma is a leading contender to fill the vacant post of Chief Executive of NICIL. She holds a LLB, has the LEC, has an LLM and is currently a PDH candidate. Having been called to the Bar over seventeen years ago, she joined PU/NICIL in 2000, I was an opposition Member of Parliament. She has served this country diligently and is an epitome of grace, professionalism and decency. It is concerningly coincidental that this article appears a day after she had an interview for the top spot at NICIL. Is the article meant to sway decision makers away from her? You articles will now curtail on her constitutional right to work as employment inside and outside of government
Whatever the motives KN has done its damage, which no amount of apologies can fix, just ask Minister Harmon. I have now seen a crude attempt to now speak of civil action as suggested by Justice Singh. This is now a totally different scenario with the learned justice report having the necessary qualifications.
I have said before that all of these forensic audits have a basic flaw; their authors have failed to incorporate the responses from the officials of the audited entities. Government has a time tested mechanism, the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, where the government has a majority. Here, the accused can face the forensic auditors and the people through their representative and the public can hear all sides. The recommendations of the PAC would be far more potent than any Forensic auditor especially one who was never issued a practicing certificate in Guyana.
Manzoor Nadir
Editor’s note: We publish Mr. Nadir’s attack on the newspaper because we believe he has a right to be heard. It would be remiss of us not to mention that the same Nadir was a minister for over ten years with a Government that viciously attacked the private media including withdrawal of advertisements from the KN and SN, victimization of the publisher of the KN, mr. Glenn Lall, attacks on KN columnist, Freddie Kissoon for which charges have been laid, the Anil Nandlall tape. We could go on. We ask if Mr. Nadir is in any moral position to lecture the private media. As regard to the issue of the hard drive. We got that part of the story from the office of the Police Advisor and SOCU. Mr. Nadir is accusing us of doing what all newspaper do – report. We will ignore his attacks on the newspaper because we know the free press becomes the first target of authoritarian governments as we believe Mr. Nadir ‘s Government was

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