Given the publicity with these land deals, why is there now secrecy with the settlements?

May 24, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,
The more I observe developments, the more mystifying the actions of the PPP government, as led by its obsessively secretive Vice President. Ironically, the more secretive he is in the conduct of the business of the people, the more revealing he is. Take this latest development involving three Guyanese companies.
Car Care, Cevons Waste Management, and Courtney Benn Construction are local outfits that had problems involving land sales, and for which settlements have been reached.
It is a positive when agreements can be had out of court, and something I support occasionally. But that is all that is supportable in the settlements finalized. There are no details about what is involved in those settlements, as announced by the Vice President (Demerara Waves, May 21). This is troubling.
This is because most things, if not all things of substance, in which the Vice President is in the mix, have come to be characterized, more and more, by secrecy or its similarly pedigreed cousin – confidentiality.
This is the business of state and people; their dignity and interests were violated, as can be gleaned from those questionable land sales. There was a big trumpet blast in the media and much hullabaloo over the land sales, and rightly so. So, it is befuddling that matters about resolution have petered out now into the usual ether of the silence of secrecy. This is not a private matter between the People’s Progressive Party and those three companies.
It is not a personal civil issue between the Vice President on his lands and principals of Car Care, Cevons Waste Management, and Courtney Benn Construction. This is the people’s business; their assets have been rearranged and disposed of in a manner detrimental to their best interests.
Given that there was so much strident publicity when the land sales stories came to light, why are we now reduced to dealing in the ominous darkness of secrecy. There has to be full disclosure. That is, unless there are aspects of the settlement that favor the party more than the country, that political markers are issued for calling in later. The Vice President and followers may believe that these settlement agreements are enlightening.
An early Payara report was promised; now it is a national security secret. The contracts in the nation’s natural resource sector should be public property, but they have been stamped “State Secrets” by the PPP and its main man, who relishes the darkness of ignorance that he spreads over supporters and citizens. And now on something as routine as these settlement agreements, the regular rubberstamp comes out: Top Secret. His Excellency did promise transparency. Clearly, his definition of transparency includes tomfoolery and these perversities.
Yours truly,
GHK Lall

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