Harmon shuts down Jagdeo’s criminal charges threat

Feb 18, 2017 News

Minister of State Joseph Harmon wasted no time yesterday in shutting down statements by Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, to the effect that his party will take private criminal charges against Government ministers for corruption.

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo

Harmon spoke on this matter during a press conference which was held at the Ministry of the Presidency.
The State Minister said that the former President should be the last person to be talking about filing criminal charges about anything. In this regard, Harmon said that there were a few unflattering reports on Jagdeo’s time in office. He reminded of comments by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which had indicated that during a period of numerous extra-judicial killings, Jagdeo as the country’s leader was actually cited as one of the persons who should be held accountable.
Harmon also made reference to the report by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), which stated that Jagdeo would go down in history as a man who has done absolutely nothing for his country while in office.
“He could only receive the lowest of marks from any independent evaluation through his tolerance of crime, racism and dismal social progress,” the report said.
Harmon said, “But what I want to say that is different with us, is that the report pointed to the fact that there was a reduction in the amount of funds spent on education during Jagdeo’s time and what we are seeing now is the impact of under resourcing for the education sector.”
The Minister of State continued, “And this is why we have to now get into emergency spending of millions of dollars for the Grade Six examinations for Mathematics and English and so on…”
The Cabinet Secretary said that the allocation for education is 17.2 percent of the budget. He noted however that in Jagdeo’s time, it was 6.1 percent.
“So we are now allocating 17.2 percent of our budget on Education, on Public Infrastructure 14.8 percent, on Public Health 12.4 percent and on Public Security, 11.6 percent. This is no joke. This is not make-up figures,” the Minister of State remarked.
He emphasized that the Government is committed to fighting crime and is dedicated to improving public health with the limited resources that are available.

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