Abhorrent activities of former Govt. officials cannot go unpunished

Abhorrent activities of former Govt. officials cannot go unpunished – Ramjattan

May 28, 2018 News

Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan has deemed prosecution of corrupt former Government officials an important step for Guyana’s development.

Minister of Public Security,
Khemraj Ramjattan

Several members of the former People’s Progressive Party (PPP/C) administration have been questioned by state investigators as part of corruption investigations.
Former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) Winston Brassington are currently before the court on three charges of misconduct in public office in relation to the sale of three plots of state land.
Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) is pursuing several other cases and has questioned former Government members, an indication that more charges are likely to follow.
“Our nation cannot move forward in any meaningful way without coming to terms legally and morally with the abhorrent activities that were authorized and even given a false character of legality committed by the men and women in the highest level of the PPP/C Government,” Ramjattan stated.
“I am aware that the prosecution of a predecessor who belongs to a competing political party is likely to be perceived as politically motivated no matter how justified or how warranted the prosecution is, but political expediency should never and will never guide us as a Government,” Ramjattan explained.
The Minister assured that once there is evidence, it will be acted upon. He explained that there is a danger in not prosecuting. Ramjattan said that it will send a bad message and every other government will feel that it can sell property to friends and family at cheap prices without following procedures.
“We cannot allow that. That is why we started doing the forensic audits and after the forensic audits brought out information. When the information was so bad, we then sent it to the police. There were some that were not that bad,” Ramjattan stated.
The Public Security Minister also claimed that the Government has nothing to do with the charges laid against the former PPP/C officials. Ramjattan stated that Government has supported the hiring of the UK’s Dr. Sam Sittlington as advisor to SOCU.
“If we as a country after 52 years cannot come to terms with unauthorized activities from leading members, we are not going to move forward. What they did really was that they contorted the law to produce dubious decisions to do these wrong things. They contorted the law,” Ramjattan stated.

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