Agri. Ministry ducked and dodged Mr. Baksh’s allegations

Dec 09, 2023 Letters

Dear Editor,

My attention is drawn to “The Agriculture Ministry Permanent Secretary was never instructed to resign” (Dec 4), an angry response triggered by the allegation from one Mr. Rudra Baksh that the Ministry failed to forfeit some $4 billion in securities from $10 billion contracts awarded to kith, kin, and friends. The response lacks substance and does not answer the queries or allegations posed.

Were contracts violated? Why weren’t the funds forfeited if contracts were violated? The Ministry response raises more questions than information provided. The country should thank Mr. Baksh for this exposure without which we would not have known of wrong doings in that ministry. And who knows what wrongs have been going on in other ministries! Where is the auditor general to look into these allegations?

In carefully reading Mr. Baksh letter and the ministry’s response, the ministry made no mention of the allegation of the $4 billion lost to contractors who did not fulfill contract requirements. Instead, the Ministry states that the PS does not manage contracts. Doesn’t the PS authorize and manage payments, and for all practical purposes that makes her the chief accounting officer of the ministry. For public consumption, has the PS been fully supported on accountability and transparency?

In conversations I had with prospective contractors, I am informed that the purported $10 billion in contracts resulting in the loss of some $4 billion is only the tip of the iceberg. The ministry, contractors informed me, gave out tens of $ billions in contracts in Regions Five and Six to inexperienced contractors over the last three years. A son who formed a construction company three years ago has been a major beneficiary with several billions in contracts. Work was not done at all or were substandard. Several projects have been left hanging. Pump stations are incomplete putting communities at risk when the heavy rains come,as happened in 2021. Yet money was paid by the ministry to contractors for non-existent or shoddy work. Performance securities and advanced payment securities should have been forfeited in the tens of billions of dollars. That is additional money the ministry lost.

Isn’t it high time that the Auditor General is called in for a thorough investigation of all contracts including management of contracts and all security deposits from September 2020 to now?

Yours truly,

Edward Burrowes

Agriculture Ministry, allegations, Edward Burrowes, Mr. Rudra Baksh, Permanent Secretary

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