Following a report suggesting that a number of former ministers will be charged as a result of a criminal probe of the findings of an audit of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), the PPP yesterday accused the government of pursuing a “political vendetta” and “witch-hunting,” while saying that any charge will be defended.
The party made the statement in response to an article published in the Kaieteur News in which Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan was reported as saying that former ministers of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration would be charged this week.
The PPP, however, dismissed Ramjattan’s comments as nothing more than a “reckless outburst,” which it saw as being part of a “political and propagandistic gimmick.”
In his audit report, former Auditor-General Anand Goolsarran urged that criminal and/or disciplinary actions be instituted against all those responsible for the interception of state revenues totaling $26.858 billion in violation of Articles 216 of the Constitution and the related sections of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act. He also urged criminal and/or disciplinary actions against all those responsible for violating Article 217 of the Constitution by causing expenditure to be incurred out of state resources without parliamentary approval.
The report of the forensic audit of NICIL’s operations was passed to the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) for a criminal probe to be conducted.
When contacted yesterday about the reported charges to be laid against any former ministers, SOCU head Sydney James declined to offer a comment and advised this newspaper to refer its questions to Ramjattan.
Sources told Stabroek News yesterday said that SOCU only took statements from former Head of the Presidential Secretariat Roger Luncheon and former presidential advisor Gail Teixeira. Both of them had been invited to the Unit’s Camp Street office along with former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, former Minister of Housing Irfaan Ali and PPP MP Nigel Dharamlall. Everyone was questioned in January, 2016.
It would appear that SOCU recently wrapped up its investigation and has since passed its findings to the special prosecution team which has been put together to deal with high profile matters.
The audit report was handed over to police in December, 2015 and subsequently to SOCU.
Winston Brassington, NICIL’s former Executive Director, was said to be key to the investigation. In December, 2015, he left Guyana and later tendered a letter of resignation. Reports indicate that he has taken up residence in the USA. It is unclear if SOCU officials were able to contact and question him.
In its statement, the PPP yesterday charged that the government is “buckling under tremendous public pressure” coming from numerous directions. Among the pressures it highlighted are the state of GuySuCo, the controversy over city parking meters, the declining economy, and the outcry over the Sussex Street drug bond and D’Urban Park.
“The Government appears impotent to deal with unemployment and a lack of job creation opportunities; massive laying off of employees in the private sector at Guy-ana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) and Barama as a result of the economic conditions further compound the situation,” it added.
The PPP called the intimation of impending charges as “clumsy threats” from the government and emphasized that it is not the function of the government to institute criminal charges. “That is a function of the Director of Public Prosecution, an independent constitutional office. If a Government cannot even understand its role and functions, how can it ever competently discharge them? What they are supposed to do, they cannot do: that is to manage and grow the economy, create more jobs and make the lives of the Guyanese people better. They are doing exactly the opposite,” the statement said.
It added that rather than admit to its incompetence, try to improve or seek help, the government is concealing its ineptitude by violating the constitution and encroaching upon the constitutional mandate of an independent office. “It is clear therefore, that if ever these charges are brought, they will not be the product of professional investigation but the manifestation of political vendetta and witch-hunting,” it stressed.
The PPP also called on those in charge in the administration of justice, organisations championing the cause of human rights and indeed, every law abiding citizen to note that the government’s agenda has nothing to do with the rule of law, due process and justice. “Theirs is an agenda of revenge, political vindictiveness and vendetta,” it said, while adding that if and when charges come, “they will be strenuously defended.”
