No contracts, agreements released to media despite green light from Granger

Aug 21, 2016 News

Despite the fact that President David Granger himself said that he believes all contracts and concession

President David Granger

agreements should be made public, a brick wall continues to face media operatives who try to lay their hands on such documents.
Transparency advocates believe that this should not be the case. They are saying that citizens have a right to know what is going on once the information does not interfere with national security.
Christopher Ram is firm in his belief that there should be no delay in releasing the contracts.
He said that if the President really wants the contracts to be released it would be very easy for him to set things in motion.
Ram said that the President is very powerful and can demand that the contracts be released to the media.
“The President can simply pass instructions that the contracts be released. If coordination seems to be a problem then he (President David Granger) can arrange for all contracts to be sent to the Ministry of the Presidency. They can then be released from there or can even be placed on the Ministry’s website. It is that simple.”
Another advocate of transparency, Anand Goolsarran, agreed that the nation has a right to know what is going on.
He told Kaieteur News, “I read what the President said when he spoke about these contracts. I totally agree with him, it is a step in the right direction. The nation has a right to know what is going on, unless it is a matter of national security.”

Transparency advocate, Christopher Ram

He continued, “I have three main words I like using, governance, transparency and accountability. Releasing these contracts and agreements of sale for hundreds of acres of land will only increase the level of transparency.”
Goolsarran noted that the public has a stake on all that is going on with regards the sale of state property “these things belong to all Guyanese.”
Goolsarran said this as he spoke about the fact that Guyana never knew about the agreements between the PPP/C government and individuals who were given hundreds of acres of land.
Further, Goolsarran said that government should not even wait to be asked, “There should be voluntary disclosures. Once there is nothing to hide, then these agreements should be released; and there should not be anything to hide when it comes to our resources, national security is another matter.”
In June, President Granger said that contracts and concession agreements should be fully disclosed to the public.
Kaieteur News had reminded the president of a promise that his government had made on several occasions – that certain contracts and concession agreements would be made available to the public, especially those which relate to the controversial Chinese logging company, BaiShanLin Forest Development Inc. and the Marriott Hotel.
But it has been over a year since the APNU+AFC coalition has taken office and this promise is yet to be

Transparency advocate, Anand Goolsarran

fulfilled. Kaieteur News had asked Granger if he intends to honour the commitment or if he has changed his mind. He responded in the negative.
Granger noted, however, that there are exceptions. In this regard, he said that the procurement of defence equipment should be kept under wraps.
Aside from this, the President said that commercial agreements should not be treated as “state secrets” and that they should be fully disclosed.

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One thought on “No contracts, agreements released to media despite green light from Granger”

lub August 22, 2016 at 5:49 pm

If, President Granger is asking that these contracts be made public., who is pushing back and holding back full public disclosure of the documents?

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