Should David Granger be investigated for corruption?

Oct 28, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I plan to do several articles looking back at the APNU+AFC in government and also the
five-month election rigging. I want to look at what role people like Rupert Roopnaraine, Clive Thomas, Maurice Odle and David Hinds played in the political shape of governmental policies. Each has about 50 years of political experience. All belonged to the WPA and grounded intimately with Walter Rodney.
When you look at what a poor leader David Granger was in the APNU+AFC regime and the stupendous level of corruption in that regime, then you want to know if these WPA figures didn’t feel disgusted with themselves. Were they mentally comfortable with how corrupt the Granger government had become?
This newspaper reported that the deputy head of NANA was stopped from leaving Guyana because the GRA allegedly claims he owes the agency $33 million in taxes. Let us assume the KN information is correct. Who is Carr? What is NANA? NANA is a body the Granger government birthed to have complete jurisdiction over anti-narcotics operations. It had authority over the police’s anti-narcotics squad and CANU.
Carr, according to this newspaper, was its deputy. This mean Carr was a public sector worker. Kaieteur News has reported that Carr has standing in a private security company. Now here is where Granger comes in, and I am not prepared to accept that Granger didn’t know the exotic and excruciating things that were taking place in sensitive and important spheres in his government.
Why should Carr not have a business of his own? There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Several top police officials and GRA personnel have small scale businesses. It is the nature of the business that is important. If a GRA employee is making money on the side selling local cooked food in a street lined with thriving companies, then so be it. His operation is not related to the importation business. He does not sell vehicles and mining parts. Once he does that, GRA will raise its eyes.
If Kaieteur News is correct, Carr was part of a company that deals in security provision. Carr at the time was deputy head of a security entity within the state. I have no evidence of Carr doing anything wrong. But there is bound to be a conflict of interest when an anti-drug enforcement officer at a very high level is part of a company that provides security to top private companies. The implications are obvious.
As to the debt of $33 million to the GRA in taxes, I don’t know if that is correct but if it is then there is a compellingly obvious question. Why would Carr be earning so much from his business transactions, yet want to be a public service officer whose pay could not have been more than $300,000 monthly after taxes because the public sector has salary scales?
My interest in this story is conflict of interest. In a small population like Guyana’s it didn’t get back to the president that Carr was part of a company offering security services and that GRA wanted $33 million from him? In a small population like Guyana’s, it didn’t reach the president’s ear that a powerfully placed person had his son selling a bureaucratic document which people would pay millions for?
Granger didn’t know one of his military soul mates was nakedly corrupt and that he was becoming enormously rich? Didn’t Granger know that a high official in the PNC party was given the contract to print birth certificates instead of an established company? Didn’t Granger know of a certain contract that was signed by one of his ministers in the oil industry that was highly controversial? But the most depraved one is in relation to the sale of state lands in which a PNC executive creamed off 220 million Guyana dollars. He must be charged.
A commission of inquiry into the police force came into being on the order of Granger after the president felt that the police force was tainted. The circumstances that led to the inquiry revolved around police incompetence over allegations of a plot to kill the president. After the report, changes were made at the top of the policy hierarchy. It turned out that the new Crime Chief was being accused of extremely serious things for which he was made to retire. Was the president alerted at any time to what that Crime Chief was being accused of?
Granger as president was given an A grade for cleanness in the financial realms of government. But since he lost power, shocking revelations are swirling around Guyana. Did Granger know about the $220 million? The question must be asked – was he in fact corrupt?

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)