At last! Prosecution looms for corrupt state officials

Nov 11, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor
It is indeed very good news, as to the Deputy Director, of the State Assets Recovery Agency(SARA) announcing at the just concluded Anti-Corruption Sensitisation Seminar that the Agency has compiled “25 solid cases”.
He has assured that these will be executed shortly, pending the acquisition of a building and other support material. Of comfort, is his assurance that the attorneys are ready to take the necessary action.
I do believe that the public has gradually come to the realisation as to the voluminous work required to investigate these cases, before assembling an air tight file against these state thieves. This is a fact that the indefatigable deputy director alluded to, when he underlined the challenge of going after persons where large sums of money are involved and their capacity to hire the best “legal brains.”
He went on to state the necessity of proper investigations, lest the State lose its cases in court. On this note, he is correct. In fact, it is a reminder of what the former US Charge D’Affaires, Brian Hunte, cautioned before his departure, when he urged patience, in expectation of prosecution, because the paper trail usually takes years.
This is what the barefaced People’s Progressive Party/Civic, has been taking advantage of – the delay in action being taken. But even they know that such bombast has to be short-lived, and that the day of reckoning must come.
It is amazing as to the expectation/cum mind set, of the chieftains of the PPP/C, despite the hypocrisy of Bharrat Jagdeo. Their many statements convey the understanding that it is quite correct for their former high officials to pillage the State, without the prospect of judicial action.
Not surprising, since it reinforces why there has been wholesale theft of state funds and other type, unabated for years et cetera. It is instructive to note, that no minister, or high state functionary had ever been removed from office/sanctioned in any manner, for corrupt practices during the two decades plus years of PPP/C rule. And this is not to say that such activities were not known. They were, since state audit reports were giving pointers.
And as an aside, it is observed that the Auditor General is very much vocal these days, than at any other time, as he makes his annual findings known.
For all the criticisms hurled at the late great Forbes Burnham, he had a better love for country than these great pretenders and unpatriotic crooks. Those whose memories are still good, will remember that he ordered the setting up of a special Magistrate’s Court to prosecute those who stole from the State.
Many senior public-sector functionaries were found guilty and jailed. Among them were a former secretary to the now defunct Guyana State Corporation, who had also been a permanent secretary, for his involvement in a massive Ministry of Trade fraud; a former General Manager of the Transport & Harbours Department; and then legal advisor at the now defunct Guyana National Co-op Bank, who fled the jurisdiction before sentence was handed down.
I stand to be corrected, by also alluding to the then head of the Re-migration scheme, who was arrested at his home for irregularities and another, who had been director for a very important State Coop Agency, reportedly caught red handed in activities that amounted to theft. Ministers were also sanctioned, by being removed from their positions.
Such had been the difference between the two sides, in such an important issue as state theft, and other acts inimical to the welfare of Guyana.
“How such high-volume thievery could be allowed to take place without any intervention by the former PPP/C administration?” They outlined the meaning of patriotism in the most vulgar of ways. It was akin to cruelly carving up Guyana for shares to the various criminal cliques.
Regards
Earl Hamilton

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