The fake that was intended to deceive

Aug 13, 2018 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
I refer to a letter written by former president, Donald Ramotar in KN August 9th “Once more setting the record straight: Debunking the fake news”. Donald wrote that most of the allegations of corruption by the PPP, “were downright lies, some were half-truths (these are often worse than lies) and almost always they were distorted.”
Lies, half truths and distorted, are not words you would expect from someone who seem decided to stick with his/her literal guns.
Ramotar seems annoyed by an Editorial in KN-”Sole sourcing and tendering” on Monday 6th in which it was mentioned that, “it (sole sourcing) was practiced frequently by the PPP government”, through “sole sourcing of drug contracts to the New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation, whose owner, Dr. Bobby Ramroop is a friend of former President Bharrat Jagdeo….”
In his attempt to debunk what all Guyana believes – Ramotar went through a preamble of how the PPP sought help from the international community to devise a system “to prevent shortages of pharmaceuticals and minimize the need for emergency purchases.”
According to Ramotar, the system the PPP got from the WHO was “best described as pre-qualification tendering”. That simply meant that one had to show (prove) that he/she was more prepared than the other bidders to get the contract.
What the public can filter from Ramotar’s missive is that the PPP elite had fine-tuned Bobby Ramroop’s pre-qualification capabilities and coupled with Cabinet’s “no objection” policy – they (the PPP) gave “New GPC” all the contracts for the supply of pharmaceuticals to the Ministry of Health.
What Ramotar does not know or would not admit, is that if one person continually gets all the contract from a Ministry, it is “sole sourcing’- forget about all the “guidelines” about prequalification and tendering – the PPP had control over all.
For Ramotar to write that, “Dr. Ramroop’s company was also not given any contract on a sole source basis”, makes him look like the one who is misleading. The court case that Ramotar alluded to simply shows how impenetrable sole sourcing was under the PPP. The PPP in power were orthodox but devious. The Coalition cannot match their dexterity in graft.
I could vividly recall KN publishing an article, during Ramotar’s presidency, which had stated that the Health Ministry was being sold shockingly over-priced drugs, and I cannot recall Ramotar ever commenting on that. Maybe he was asleep at the time.
So what is the enigmatic genius of Ramotar’s so-called “pre-qualification tendering,” when tax payers were paying many times the local price for products? Mind you! That has not changed.
Donald said, “In the editorial, the PNC-led APNU regime’s obviously corrupt dealings were mentioned very mildly.” It’s hard to believe that Ramotar read the entire editorial. Anyone who read the editorial can acknowledge that the part mentioned by Ramotar, about sole sourcing being “practiced frequently by the PPP”, was written to assert that the Coalition was continuing in the said pathway of the PPP, despite while being in opposition, they had criticized the PPP for sole sourcing to New GPC. The remainder of the article listed and lambasted the Coalition for sole sourcing. Did Ramotar sleep while reading the editorial too?
Ramotar and his cohorts’ continuous hatred for KN seems boundless. They have stopped short of blaming KN for their demise – losing the 2015 elections.
It would work wonders for their psyche, if they could hearken to an old parable – “If you defecate in water it will float.” That will make them see KN as the institution where the debate is given the full 360 degrees.
How else can Donald explain his piece of trash gracing its letter pages? And obviously, myself getting a chance to debunk it as a fake that was intended to deceive.
Rudolph Singh

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