Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 17, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
The construction of the sugar packaging plant at Enmore, by the PPP, attracted two sets of controversies. The first was over the construction costs and the second was over the decision to establish the packaging plant.
The publisher of this newspaper, in the interest of transparency, had offered to pay for an audit of the construction costs. He was convinced that this was necessary because of the figure that was quoted. He felt that Guyana could have gotten a better deal.
The new government has been undertaking a great many and highly costly so-called forensic audits. Yet, the police still have to be called in to investigate.
The people of Guyana are not interested in legal technicalities and semantics. They are not interested in whether the funds held and invested by NICIL should have passed through the Consolidated Fund. That is legal technicality. They are not interested in whether NICIL was a parallel treasury. That too is a legal technicality.
Guysuco, like NICIL, is a public corporation. Its funds are not passed through the Consolidated Fund. Yet, it is not being accused of illegal use of funds or of running a parallel treasury.
The so-called adverse findings of the forensic audit on NICIL revolves around the mistaken belief that NICIL, as a public corporation, was mandated to have its funds passed through the Consolidated Fund. This is an issue of law, and APNU and the AFC always knew that and never took the trouble to have this point of law adjudicated in a court of law. They knew why.
But now they have persons shadowing former officials of NICIL under the pretext that these persons may have incriminating evidence. For seven months, these officials were allowed to sit in NICIL’s offices and only now they are under suspicion. This has to be the biggest joke in the Caribbean.
It is, however, no laughing matter, because this absurdity has cost the lives of three persons. No one is taking blame for that operation and no inquiry is being launched to determine who was responsible for this operation, if indeed it was an operation.
The public is not interested in legal technicalities. The public wants to know who stole money, where is the money, where is the evidence that money was stolen and what is being done about the stolen money?
So, has any money gone missing from NICIL and if so, where is the money and into whose pockets it went?
The public was led to believe that NICIL was a slush fund. Well if it was a slush fund then there should have been evidence as to where the money went. The public does not want to hear now that the operations of NICIL were illegal. That is a question for the constitutional court, not the CID or SOCU.
The public is now hearing from the Chairman of GuySuCo how many billions were lost in 2013 and 2014. The public is being told that come next year the exports of bulk sugar will cease. Well, is this not why the packaging plant was established by the PPP, so that higher premium sugar could have been exported rather than the cheaper bulk sugar. So it is now right out of the horse’s mouth. The government is now vindicating the PPP’s decision to establish the packaging plant. The concept of the PPP is now being pursued by the new Board.
The State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) is undertaking a criminal investigation into the disposal of State lands at Pradoville Two. It is said that the lands were sold below market prices. The SARU says that the sale of lands below market prices is a criminal offence.
Well GuySuCo transferred thousands of acres of land way below market prices, and in some cases it transferred it freely to the State to be distributed as house lots. If GuySuCo was paid market prices for these lands it would have made more money than Microsoft did. It would not have run losses.
So here is a classic case for SARU. Why does it not seek to obtain market prices for the lands that GuySuCo transferred to the State?
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
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