Keeping alive the memories of the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabals

Aug 31, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Simply unbelievable! There are no words to describe Guyana. A former Trinidadian Minister has been taken to the police station in connection with alleged witness tampering when his party was in government. In Guyana, under the Jagdeo/Ramotar cabals, far more depraved illegalities have taken place and only two former ministers are before the courts – Jennifer Westford and Anil Nandlall.
In the industrial world, the CARICOM region, Latin America and elsewhere, former leaders are either in jail, before the courts or are being investigated for illegalities when in office. For fifteen years, Jagdeo and Ramotar have ruled Guyana where corruption became mountainous, but where is historical justice? Take one example. The Guyana Revenue Authority investigated former Secretary to the Treasury, Nirmal Rekha and the report concluded that Mr. Rehka signed over a hundred duty free letters that were bogus.
What is instructive about this bizarre tale was that the accusation was not made by an opposition figure or a PPP detractor. This was an investigation conducted by the Guyana Revenue Authority, one of the most importantly sensitive state institutions in the land. The Secretary to the Treasury is another term for the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance. In which part of the world, could such a high level state actor be accused of signing over a hundred illegal duty free concessions and not be investigated when there is a change of government?
Surely, there could be mistakes made, but not over a hundred mistakes by the same person. Let’s move to Leslie Ramsammy. The manager of an American electronic stores that sells complex high tech equipment only to governments said that the then Minister of Health, Leslie Ramsammy was the Minister from the Guyana Government that purchased a sophisticated spy instrument. It turned out that the item found its way in the possession of one of the Caribbean’s most notorious drug traffickers, Roger Khan, now in a US federal prison.
Enter the realm of nonsense. A man (who this writer thinks should not be taken seriously) accused a businessman of wanting to assassinate the president. The police found the accuser and his story comical and did not proceed with deep investigation and charges. The government was not satisfied, so it ordered a Commission of Inquiry. Now square this with what a witness, working as an informant for the US government told an American court in the trial of witness tampering by Roger Khan’s lawyer. He said after human rights activist, Ronald Waddell was murdered, the gunmen reported to a Minister in the Jagdeo Government that he named as Leslie Ramsammy.
This is the same Ramsammy that writes two letters a week accusing the present administration of authoritarian traits. One letter denounced the government for employing friends and relatives, an art that Ramsammy’s two presidents, Jagdeo and Ramotar perfected. At the time he lost power, President Ramotar’s daughter was General Manager of the Guyana Gold Board and Ramotar’s son was the highly paid head of the E-governance cable which today is beyond salvaging and which has resulted in billions of lost money.
The Government wants Interpol to locate a former assistant general manager of GPL, accused of a $27 million-dollar fraud. But NICIL and the former Finance Minister allegedly broke every financial law on the statute books. Those who would like to see how backward this country is, should compare NICIL’s action and the behaviour of the former Finance Minister under Jagdeo and Ramotar, with what happened to impeached Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff.
Rousseff was not accused of any corruption charge involving taking money, accepting bribes, using state funds for personal accumulation, having foreign accounts, having assets that cannot be accounted for; nothing of the sort. She was accused of violating Brazil’s Fiscal Responsibility Law. Guyana has a similar law. She authorized expenditures without congressional approval. This was the identical charge APNU and AFC made in 2012 against Minister Ashni Singh when APNU and the AFC used their majority in the House to remove certain allocations which Singh still implemented.
Belize has a similar situation with what has taken place with regards to Pradoville 2 and the current Belizean government has taken action. The Pradoville 2 saga, had it occurred in most countries of the world, would have resulted in criminal charges. Some depravities in the project were abominable. For example, recipients already had houses when they were given concessions at Pradoville 2. And what did one lot owner do? Build a house on the land and sold it for one million US. Surely, the assets of Guyana should not be dispensed with like that.

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