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After years of accusation the charges are a vindication of the PPP
Dear Editor,
The Law of unintended consequences seems to have struck SOCU and the Administration. Urged on by the learned Attorney General to “Secure convictions” , SOCU has fired its first shot with charges of Public misconduct in Public office against former PPP Minister of Finance Ashni Singh and former head of the Sovereign Wealth management agency, NICIL, Mr. Winston Brassington.
The charges stem from cited procedural errors and lay no claim to illicit gain for either official by way of corrupt practice.
Robert K Merton’s “The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action” lists five causes of unintended consequences, the first two “Ignorance” and “Error” are most persuasive; however I will be generous and apply the third “imperious immediacy of interest.”
By that he was referring to instances in which someone wants the intended consequence of an action so much that he purposefully chooses to ignore any unintended effects.
For sure, if after years of listening to the multitude of accusations of PPP corruption by the then opposition and more so by the Kaieteur News of hundreds of Billions of dollars of theft annually, of every imaginable accusation associated with every project undertaken to improve the lives of Guyanese, this can only be seen as an exoneration of the PPP and a stunning indictment of irresponsible behavior of the Kaieteur News.
If after all that, including Forensic Audits done by various persons including by Mr. Jaipaul Sharma who sits as a Member of Parliament on the Government benches, added to three years of investigation by various special purpose units, we have ‘procedural errors’ as the charge this further exemplifies the exoneration.
Our Attorney General should have given more prudent advice to these anti-corruption organizations: To seek truth, to investigate thoroughly, to charge when the evidence warrants it, without fear or favor any Official of any administration, past or present that engages in corrupt practice for personal gain.
Sadly, Basil Williams chose to wear the hat of PNC Party Chairman and delivered a political ‘sound bite’. The unintended consequences of his ill thought out instructions have acquired a bite of their own.
The time has surely come for the Anti-corruption agencies to ‘put up or shut up’ and certainly not to engage in laying a plethora of transparently politically motivated persecutions. These charges are not worthy of the resources allocated to these agencies.
We cannot be paying/ handing billions of taxpayer dollars to find procedural misconduct. Using subjective real estate values as the foundation for charges is a slippery slope. For example, during the conception phase of the Marriott Hotel in Georgetown, one knowledgeable accountant/lawyer suggested that the land designated for the construction was worth Seventy five million USD but oddly enough, the Pegasus Hotel, located in the same vicinity and of similar size sold for less than ten percent of that figure, and that was with a complete hotel and amenities.
We can ascribe value and ask any price for any property, but in the end it is only worth what someone is willing to pay.
These charges based on flimsy foundations also has the potential consequence of opening the floodgates of effluent Tit for Tat charges that would haunt Guyana for generations. We will need to construct a separate luxury level incarceration facility for politicians, Government agency staff and public servants.
Mature thought is required for us to grow as a Nation; the current instability can become worse and move from a proxy civil war played out in court to a very real one in the streets.
In closing, If and when these agencies discover true evidence-based corruption, I would be happy to publicly support any such legitimate prosecution.
Sincerely
Robin Singh
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