Dear Editor,
I thought long and hard whether I should reply to the comments attributed to Ramsey Ali that were published in the Guyana Chronicle, Friday, July 15, 2011(‘GCB president looking to mediator for DCB issues’). It appears from the article that Mr Ramsey Ali is trying desperately to discredit me when he said: “The Assistant Treasurer of the former Executive Committee of the GCB listed about six or seven allegations and I am convinced that these were made with an aim to create mischief at the said AGM.” What was raised are not allegations but facts. However, Mr Ali wants to give the former Treasurer (Sheik Ahmad) some credit.
After reading in the press that the GCB’s audited financial statement was available, I uplifted a copy. After perusing that statement and the income and expenditure statement for the same (December 1, 2009-November 30, 2010) I observed that they were two different documents, as the figures under income and expenditure were vastly different.
I raised my observations with the Executive Committee at the statutory meeting held on May 27, 2011 and it was clear to all present including Mr Ali that something was wrong. The Executive Committee then set up a three member committee (Ali, Jaigobin, Ahmad) to thoroughly examine those two financial documents and report to the June 2011 meeting of the GCB Executive.
On Monday, May 30, 2011, when trying to get the necessary information from the Administrator of the GCB to start my investigation, I was told by her that she cannot give any information unless President Chetram Singh, Secretary Anand Sanasie or Treasurer Sheik Ahmad gave permission in writing. I was shocked since they were all present at the meeting of May 27, 2011. I made several contacts via email to sort out this matter but was unsuccessful.
The fact that Mr Ali after the hijacking of the GCB is on record as saying he will ensure that all the income and expenditure queried by the executives would be examined and made public including the Pakistan tour, is an admission that there are serious problems. Why wait until those who highlighted the corruption are removed from office to do so?
Yours faithfully,
Pretipaul Jaigobin
