THE E-ID CARD PROJECT IS LACED WITH INCONSISTENCIES

May 23, 2023 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – Contracts in Guyana have the tendency to sweeten the palate and plunge headlong into the labyrinth of misuse and inflated costs to outright theft of state funds. Up comes the PPP’s decision to issue a new brand of ‘hi-tech’ Identification cards. The electronic citizenship card project stands as another example of this government’s autocracy in bypassing the constitutional channels in spending taxpayers’ dollars for a project that should have been evaluated instead of the fait accompli decision.

This is a constant reminder of the unfettered powers of Freedom House as exhibited several times on all issues by the honcho and de facto president who believes he knows it all and who wants things to be done his way, or the highway for those who refused or objected.

Simple logic would dictate that if Guyana were interested in an electronic ID system that would allow entry into the country and a range of other hassle-free interventions, then it would issue invitations for public tender, and these would then be tendered to the National Procurement and Tender Administration (NPTAB) for an evaluation committee to make the final determination. Now this is not a matter of urgency so there is no justification because the project cannot be classified as being one of national security so why did the government do its own procuring thereby trampling on its own procurement brother?

However, the real catastrophe emanates from the data base of all Guyanese names – the National Registration Records – a highly flawed, diseased document which cannot even produce an accurate Voters’ List 57 years after Independence! President Ali’s defence of the contract was, as usual, flaccid, and lacking in substance. He told the virtual signing that the Government’s commitment to promote e-governance is to improve the productivity of businesses and delivery of government services through e-health, e-education, e-security, e-agriculture, electronic permits, and licence processing. So here is the Head of State squashing the purpose of the Procurement Commission which leaves many to believe that the E-Identification cards project is laced with inconsistencies.

So here is another potential casualty brewing, exposing the propensity of the de facto President and honcho for ill-conceived projects like the white elephant Skeldon sugar factory, the ill-advised and mis-guided Amalia Falls, and the silly and unthinkable Surendra Hospital. Such a huge expenditure could be better used to improve the poor conditions at all the hospitals throughout the country, repair the wide and deep potholes on the roadways including the so-called poorly constructed highways, and the collection of garbage in the rat-infested Capital and other cities in the country where a few inches of rain would cause severe flooding. The time has come for the taxpayers and the people in general to question how the PPPC government headed by the honcho and the de facto president is spending their dollars. For example, it has been ten years and counting since construction of the Cheddi Jagan Airport has started and today, it is still not completed. Lousy work by the Chinese contractor who are friends of the de facto president is still being paid by the government to correct their own mistakes.

In Guyana, the PPP/C government is wasting billions of dollars to build roads, bridges, and a stadium at Palmyra in Berbice which only a handful rich persons will use because of the high cost of transportation. No one, except the honcho and de facto president, knows how much the stadium will cost or how the contractor was awarded the contract. Were there any kickbacks and if so, who it was paid to? So, while the government is investing heavily in hi-tech ID cards and infrastructure which are of little importance to the people, more that 60 percent of the population are poor and are struggling to put food on the table or send their children to school. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the America, and who many Guyanese has held in their hands on the US$:100 bill, has said “where all men think alike no man thinks at all.” We hope the honcho and de facto president understands the wise and well thought out words issued by Franklin.

Sincerely
Leyland Chitlall Roopnaraine