"What are your motives, sir?"

“What are your motives, sir?”

Mar 06, 2018 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
My attention was today drawn to the following opening gambit of an article headlined -“Auditor General gives GECOM more time to review fraud reports”. This appeared on page 62 of the Kaieteur News of Sunday February 25, 2018.
Such beneficence is not his to bestow let alone unvarnished threats. And again: “Following the audits at GECOM, Sharma had recommended that the reports be turned over to the Police for criminal investigation”. Ditto. The Auditor General is presumed to be a man of integrity and does not suffer from any form of cognitive decline as far as I know. I therefore have to ask rhetorically of him, “What are your motives, sir?”
Policy of the Commission is decided by the Commissioners and the Chairman thereof. This independence is fiercely guarded by the author of this letter and any infiltration therein is abhorred. Previous articles appearing in past editions of the Kaieteur News have been brought to my attention.
It seems that your medium was used to unleash unhinged ad hominem accusations against the Chief Election Officer, Mr. Keith Lowenfield particular under the cover of “professional inquiry”. The Auditor General’s antics, when unmasked, reveal a departure from the hallowed principle of “explore, examine, explain where necessary” and he has delved perilously close to the realm of “excessive conduct” unbecoming of his calling and profession. His unsubtle attacks on the integrity of the Chief Election Officer break with the orthodoxy of impartiality which his profession imposes on its members.
If the Auditor General has a mandate qua Auditor General to refer any matter within his domain to the Police for inquiry then, for heaven’s sake, just do so. Threats do not abide comfortably on the shoulder of this Chairman and the entity for which he has statutory responsibility. They avail nothing and are to be treated with disdain which I hereby do.
If the Auditor General has a personal issue with Mr. Keith Lowenfield as Accounting Officer then, certainly at least as a private citizen, he has a right also to make submissions to the proper authorities for the appropriate remedies. Nothing, Editor, betrays a more base and ungenerous spirit than the display of public and unwarranted stabs to a man’s reputation. The worthy Auditor General seems to have been eroticized by power, naked power, dare I say, and he should attend the proper place for the appropriate therapy.
Yours sincerely,
Justice (Ret’d) James Patterson Chairman
Guyana Elections Commission

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