The ends are what matter, according to Dr. Jagdeo

Nov 27, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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…Hard Truths

by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News- The issue is the Turkish powerboat, Karpower’s, dodgy past.  The call from the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) brass, is for the due diligence documents on the company to be made public.  The response from the PPP Government’s gladiator and all-purpose operator, Dr. Bhar-rat Jagdeo is why should that matter (my own words).  Karpower is here, more electricity is being supplied, Guyanese energy consumers are sharing in an on and off ease, and that is what must mean the most, more than anything else.  My interpretation of the vice president’s words, if I may be permitted.  To sum up Dr. Jagdeo’s position: what’s all the noise, why the outcry about what happened elsewhere?  The ends (results) are what matters, so be done with all the hubbub.  Get moving.  Better yet, get lost.

Astonishing!  That is my first reaction.  Contradictory is the second one that came.  The third reaction stirred as a question: Do the elements, which go to the heart of clean governance, and a high standard of political leadership integrity in government’s relationships, local and foreign, represent anything?  Perhaps, perhaps not.  But, given the vice president’s posture, I think it is more in the nature of ‘to hell with all of that garbage.  Do what has to be done, and the fallout will be dealt with when such surfaces.’  To be candid, I would have thought that a man as silky as Dr. Jagdeo would be more at home taking a different approach, addressing the issue of Karpower lapses differently.  To say the least, it was not confidence inducing, trust boosting.

Every Guyanese, regardless of their political complexion, political inclination, and political passions, know that corruption is a big problem in Guyana.  Tenders awarded to ineligible people.  Bribe giving and bribe taking is now an established component of Guyanese culture.  Guyanese incentivized and documents fixed so that the local content law is violated in its intent, if not in letter.  In South Africa and other places, Karpower got its mind messed up and its hands stained.  Notwithstanding severe electricity distresses and unmet energy needs, leaders that are truly committed to ethics in government would keep a safe distance from companies such as Karpower.  If the required due diligence was done, Karpower shouldn’t be here.  Since it is here, did somebody in the PPP Government overlooked (or overrode) what a proper due diligence process revealed, i.e., presuming that one was done?  Because of the dismal state of electricity supply in this country, time and speed were of the essence.  But it couldn’t have been at such a breakneck level that the very monster being fought (corruption) on the one hand, was the one being fed, with the other.  Specifically, a contractual relationship with Karpower.  This troubled Turkish company could not have been the only electricity supply boat in the world that was available under expedited circumstances.

I look at this another way.  Could Dr. Jagdeo’s diminishing and badmouthing the concerns about Karpower’s untidy and uninspiring record, through the camouflage of urgent electricity needs be for another reason?  That is, Karpower is just the kind of company with which the PPP Government is most delighted to seal deals.  Its past history of generosity in other places to various officials has to be mouthwatering to those who manage the business of this country.  Karpower could be a good fit, a prince of a partner that knows how to get business moving, given it was freehanded before in faraway places.  The government had the best poultice: which is more important: getting electricity into homes, schools, and small businesses, or holding up progress because of fears of bribery?

A separate concern is about the example, the standard being set for the children.  Considering Karpower’s past failures to do things in the right way, children may get the impression that it is not such a big deal to do their own thing in exams.  Just as long as they come out with flying colors.  Especially when national leaders pretend at loftier priorities, or are cavalier about what should concern.  What is the message to be gathered by young minds, when this is the world in which adults live, thrive?  Get away once with playing games makes the interest in doing so a second time easier to consider, quicker to put into action.  Then, a whole culture takes root, from what is given a pass today.  I think of the quality of public servants Guyana could find hanging over its head.  There is a continuing chorus that bemoans this country’s poor pay for its skilled people, and its difficulties holding on to them.  What is to stop any powerful, deep-pocketed foreign multinational corporation from wooing monitoring Guyanese to see things their way, look the other way, and do their bidding for a price?  It seems to me that that was what Karpower tried and succeeded at in Lebanon and Pakistan, until it got caught.  Often, definitely to me, when issues and allegations like these surface, I ask myself, how much more of a similar sleazy record is still not known.

The bottom line lesson is that leaders are serious about corruption in any form, by any hand, and do something about it.  If not, corruption will continue to sicken and sink Guyana.

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

(The ends)

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• clean governance, Dr. Bhar-rat Jagdeo, Guyanese culture, hard truths, Working Peoples’ Alliance

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