GHK Lall has it wrong, PAC chair must come from Opposition benches

Jun 19, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

The Laws of Guyana clearly state that the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee must come from the Opposition benches of Parliament; therefore, it is beyond surprising to see the former Chair of the Guyana Gold Board, Gabriel Lall, positing that the removal of David Patterson is an attempt by the PPP/C to wrest control of the said committee. Lall proceeds to belay this straw man of his with dark words and graphic phrases, unfortunately, GHK Lall has no factual leg to stand on with this and other cases he has tried to build since his beloved APNU+AFC were voted out of office.
In his opinion piece (Demerara Waves 16.6.21) Lall pointedly refuses to examine the reasons for Patterson’s removal from the PAC, no doubt GHK is uncomfortable with the excesses and personal expenses incurred by Patterson as they may have parallel and precedence in the Gold Board. To be clear, the next Chair of the Public Accounts Committee will come from the Opposition benches of Parliament as the PPP/C is a law-abiding party and has no history of self-serving interpretations of the clear language of the Laws of Guyana.
Editor, two weeks ago GHK used the termination of service of Messrs. Hilbert Knight and Thomas Nestor at the Gold Board as ‘evidentiary racial discrimination, following my debunking, Lall doubled down on his claims which forces me to reveal further details of my research. Knight and Nestor were hired post-2015 by the Granger administration; a position was created for Knight (who claimed to be a senior Alliance for Change official and his training took weeks longer than normal for he was a teacher and unfamiliar with accounting and management. Nestor was hired at the age of 68, a retiree with connections to the PNC leadership, how GHK Lall can characterize these men as ‘senior employees’ and not admit that they are political appointees speaks volumes to his judgment or lack of thereof.
Hilbert Knight was not terminated as he was allowed to finish his period of contract work despite acting beyond his remit and authorising the purchase of Gold from a miner without there being logbook evidence of production in Guyana. This purchase is still reverberating within the industry and Guyana’s gold industry is under threat of blacklisting internationally. Given the lack of factual basis for GHK Lall’s opinions recently, I would suggest that Lall inform himself before seeking to edify others.

Faithfully,
Robin Singh

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