Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy on Monday labelled a Kaieteur News headline which said he had admitted to purchasing drugs illegally, as a “blatant lie” while questioning the motive of the newspaper.

Responding to the front-page headline in last Sunday’s edition of the newspaper the minister told a press conference that it had not been a mistake. He said that the KN had deliberately misrepresented the truth “as part of its wicked vendetta against the Government of Guyana for some unknown reason.”

The minister said he was a strong advocate of media freedom but this came with a responsibility, and according to him the headline had been “reckless and irresponsible.” He said that the newspaper’s own news story under the headline had failed to show that he had made such an admission. The minister said he had made it clear to one of the newspaper’s reporters that the issue was the same one raised in the 2005 Auditor General report and the explanation is the same. He said that in 1997 and 2003 cabinet approvals were legally appropriate documents and the Auditor General never questioned the process. According to the minister it was in accordance with those approvals that his ministry had procured its medicines and goods. “The Auditor General made recommendations in its 2005 and 2006 reports that the letters of approval from cabinet ought to be renewed though the Tender Board. The Ministry of Health has since accepted the recommendation of the Auditor General,” Dr Ramsammy said, adding that this had been explained to the reporter as well as a senior journalist and the editor of the newspaper.

“Kaiteur News was deliberate in choosing a headline it knew to be an untruth from the beginning,” the minister said.

“I believe that the media has a responsibility and Kaieteur News has abdicated its responsibility and has acted with absolute malice, irresponsibility and recklessness,” the minister concluded.