Going back on promises is a no-no

Aug 14, 2016 Features / Columnists, My Column

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Transparency was supposed to be the watchword of the new administration. President David Granger had given the promise that everything his government does would be transparent. And this was as a result of the numerous secret deals and other things that the previous administration pursued in secrecy.
However, it is as people say. “Talk is cheap.” Others say, “If you talk the talk you must walk the walk.” There are now some in President Granger’s Cabinet who are not walking the walk. At issue is the decision by the Ministry of Public Health to rent a bond being fashioned by Larry Singh, an entrepreneur who is no stranger to controversy.
This situation was so unnecessary. For one, the government has its own bond that it had constructed at Diamond to store pharmaceuticals.
The Donald Ramotar administration constructed this bond for $400 million. It was touted to be the largest in this corner of the world; it was supposed to be operated and managed electronically and it would be able to effectively manage the distribution of drugs to every medical centre and clinic in the country.
Prior to the construction of this bond, the political opposition was up in arms because the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (New GPC) was sole sourced and the reports stated that the government paid the New GPC $100 million a year.
So this new state-of-the-art bond was constructed, but it appeared never to have been put in use. Owner of the New GPC, Dr Ranjisinghi Ramroop, in a recent press release said that he was storing the drugs for free from 2003 to 2015. If that were the case why then was there this rush to construct a bond?
So we come to the issue at hand. Public Health Minister Dr George Norton enters into a sole sourced arrangement with Larry Singh. Dr Norton was aware that an end to sole sourcing was something that his government had campaigned for when it was in the opposition. Needless to say the reaction was expected.
It turns out that Dr Norton had explained to his Cabinet colleagues that the New GPC was charging too much and that this new arrangement would actually save money. He claimed that he was paying the New GPC some $19 million per month. He got the green light to pay $25 million in advance money to Larry Singh who was going to take $12.5 million a month.
But Larry’s bond is still being fashioned. New GPC said that it had not received a cent, and that it only moved to charge for its storage because it recognized that the government was going to change its bidding process.
The New GPC statement read, inter alia, “After the Ministry of Public Health indicated a substantive and substantial alterations (sic) in the old bidding procedure for pharmaceuticals on March 1, 2016, they approached the NEWGPC to continue providing storage for pharmaceuticals for the Ministry of Public Health and the GPHC.
“At that point the corporation indicated it would charge the government a rate of $237/sq foot for the state of the art storage facility. At this time, contrary to the asseverations of the Minister in Parliament, the NEWGPC has not received a single cent from the government for the rentals due since March 1, 2016 even though there are substantial quantities of pharmaceuticals being stored in the warehouse.”
President Granger, commenting on the issue, said that he was told that the idea behind the deal with Larry Singh had to do with saving money. However, he has ordered a probe. Further, the Attorney General has been told to review the arrangement.
Minister Raphael Trotman who is charged with conducting the investigation said that he did find a cheque drawn to the New GPC. President Granger has ordered that the cheque be paid over to New GPC.
But what was it that made Dr Norton lie to the National Assembly? For one, nothing is secret in the country. Second, the fact that Larry Singh had to be paid had to be made public in the National Assembly. It turned out that he lied about certain things, even to the point of denying the public the right to view the contract he signed with Larry Singh.
Now he is to apologise to the House, giving the opposition something to make even more noise about. Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo says that an apology is not enough, that Dr Norton must face the Privileges Committee. I wouldn’t disagree, although Governments have been known to protect its Ministers.
There is still a big question in my mind. Why has the government not used the bond it constructed? The amount of money spent on what is a white elephant is more than the government spent on hosting the jubilee. People fumed at that expenditure, but they remained silent at the fact that there was a greater expenditure that remained a white elephant.
There has been wasted expenditure in other areas. The most recent was the Kato Secondary School. In some countries people would end up in jail. Not so in Guyana.
And before I forget, I owe the Inter-American Development Bank a huge and unqualified apology. I stated last week that the IDB funded the construction of the Kato Secondary School. I was wrong. I therefore apologise to Ms Sophie Makonnen and her organization.

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