Dear Editor,
The PPP has launched anti-corruption investigations into Georgetown‘s City Hall and the GDF’s cooperative credit union. These were announced boldly in a high-profile manner. The PPP wanted the entire world to know of these audits and anti-corruption investigations. I am all for these investigations but I wonder whether the PPP is playing a political game with its double standards on corruption. City Hall and the army cooperative credit union are two symbols of African power. The findings will be released to the nation at large. NCN did an audit which was hidden from the public but the independent newspapers got the details and exposed the fraud there. The PPP never announced the audit or the findings. An audit was done at the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) where fraud and conflict of interest were discovered and the auditor recommended the dismissal of two senior managers. The PPP did not publicize this audit and it sought to hide the findings from the public. The police have not been called in to arrest any of the culprits at these entities.
There is no genuine desire within the PPP to fight corruption but there is a genuine desire to use anti-corruption as another divisive political tool. The PPP is playing games with right and wrong in this country and it will backfire. When one entity comprised primarily of those who support the PNC/APNU and to a lesser degree the AFC gets publicly targeted and other entities are allowed to steal taxpayers’ money with impunity, the natural conclusion is the PPP is playing politics with corruption. Some are targeted and others are avoided, bypassed and protected. The entire country sees it and knows it and is disgusted with it. We all know the PPP lacks moral and ethical legitimacy to fight corruption but it gets even more despicable when the PPP resorts to these shenanigans to score cheap political points. There was nothing more nauseating than the dog and pony show on NCN, the same place where one of the biggest recent acts of fraud took place and the perpetrators remain un-prosecuted.
How in heaven’s name could anyone show proof of corruption when they are confronting a government that actively blocks, destroys and buries that proof? Another tactic by the PPP is to claim it is fighting corruption while it is actually hiding the truth. The recent actions of the PPP on corruption lead one to question if the PPP is playing the race game on the corruption battle. There is something fundamentally unfair and inconsistent about the double standards of the PPP here. It appears that the PPP is firstly tackling low level occurrences of corruption where small fish are fried while big sharks walk away scot free. Then there is the selective targeting of certain entities. Finally, it is truly contemptible that the PPP wants to audit City Hall and the GDF credit union but NICIL, which has handled billions of taxpayers’ money and assets and which has not filed reports since 2005, remains untouchable. How come an investigation into the shenanigans at City Hall is ordered but nothing into the Ministry of Health with drug purchases and questionable hospital contracts is ever ordered? If Globe Trust can be probed why not Clico or NIS, which is facing bankruptcy?
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
