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US$214M audit – Gossai carrying the load

Oct 07, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – It was former President Donald Ramotar who spoke out publicly asking why no one had been fired in the US$214 million scandal.  Some two weeks into what was billed as a full ‘investigation’, and a thorough ‘probe’, the PPPC Government has an answer for Mr. Ramotar.  Senior Ministry of Natural Resources employee, Mr. Gopinath Gossai is the man on the hot seat, staring at the firing line.  The problem is that what the former president called for, viz., people being fired, and what the PPPC Government is very cleverly speaking about, which is some form of discipline, could be two things that are poles apart.

This mystery of the man behind the negotiating down, in effect the giving away of, some US$211 million out of US$214 million in audit findings, is now solved.  This is what Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharat, and Vice President Jagdeo, would have us believe.  That is, all roads lead to and terminate with Gopinath Gossai.  Former President Ramotar may be delighted that his call from the presidential pulpit that he once occupied, has been responded to so niftily and so conclusively by his peers in the PPPC Government.

On the face of it, the giving up of Gossai as the one who erred in his handling of the US$214 million audit findings, should be about all that speaks to clean governance, in that there are no sacred cows- no untouchables where this oil wealth is concerned. The problem from this paper’s point of view is that Mr. Gopinath Gossai acting on his own with hundreds of millions of American dollars involved is stretching matters too far.  No Guyanese should be this limited in thinking that, that is all there is to this thick audit darkness, and that one Natural Resources worker engaged in what he did all by himself.  This country does not work this way, and even more emphatically, this is not the PPPC Government’s modus operandi.  Many ministers in the government have had to watch helplessly while the bigger and more eye-catching duties associated with their portfolios have been seized by the more powerful in their midst.  If the power and scope of some minister’s functions have been usurped, then it belittles the senses to offer up Gopinath Gossai as the solitary sacrificial lamb.

This is our position, and it is one in which we believe Gossai was ready, willing, and cooperative.  Frankly, any quick scan of the coast for audit culprits would even more quickly reveal that there are not many from which to pick the right man to fetch the hernia.  That is, a man who could be depended upon to keep his mouth shut about what really went on, and who pushed him to where he ended up with that US$211 million audit reduction.  In Gossai, the political powers have their man, and he is sure to hold his peace, and bide his time.

Relative to biding his time, there is this joke about some form of discipline following.  Discipline would be the new shock, and the new mystery, that emerges from the PPPC Government with this audit horror.  Part of this con game by veteran political conmen should see a slap on the wrist, which should confirm to all Guyanese that discipline for Gossai is part of the fix.  A demotion from where he is, or making a big hue and cry about removing him from the Natural Resources Ministry, and his having nothing to do with oil and gas going forward.

On paper, this would look good, but with the PPPC Government and the cunning people in the forefront, one never knows what could be hidden in their sleeves, and how this is going to play out.  Gossai is not going to be kicked out into the cold and left on his own, that is a certainty.  It is all part of the damage control, and why this joke of a probe took more than two weeks to finalize.  Gossai is going to grin and bear like the loyalist that he is, and the PPPC Government gets the luxury of dodging another bullet.

Guyanese, meanwhile, should be seeing for themselves how audit clarity is really more skullduggery.

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