On the morning of October 7th, an ambulance attached to the Skeldon Hospital was busted at the back of Number 78 Rampoor Village, Corentyne with a quantity of chicken. The matter was handed over to the police and since then there has been eerie silence from them. This was not a complex operation requiring experts to unravel what had happened. It was straightforward and Inspector Clouseau on his worst day would still be able to pluck apart what had transpired.
While this might be considered to be a relatively minor matter, it speaks to serious transgressions and political contamination. The corrupt use of this ambulance which could have possibly been needed for a medical emergency calls into question the management of the facilities of the Skeldon Hospital. Despite promises, the Regional Health Officer is yet to pronounce on this matter. The management of the hospital is also still to be heard from. Given what had transpired, potentially any piece of equipment that falls under the jurisdiction of the hospital is available for abuse.
Second, the chicken in the ambulance was more than likely smuggled from Suriname which is why this elaborate cover was needed. Local chicken producers have often complained about the impact of this problem and it is clear that it is continuing. Smuggling, an unremitting feature of life on the Corentyne Coast, continues. In this instance the smugglers have compromised riverine border controls, the police, the customs authorities and they have the inside track with people who can commandeer an ambulance from the Skeldon Hospital. Impressive and dangerous.
Just after the chicken was found it was alleged that a senior regional official had been the originator of the caper. This is most likely the reason why his goose has not yet been cooked and why the police have appeared clueless for more than two weeks. Inevitably, the driver of the ambulance and the guard at the hospital will take the fall. However, if the police in Berbice want to be considered to be credible they must charge the mastermind and develop an airtight case that will succeed in court or else they are a major part of the problem.
What is also clear, as is the case nationally, is that the police are available to be influenced by the powers-that-be who exercise this corruptive hold whenever they need to protect their interests as in their strongholds. This undermining and corrupting of the police force must be expurgated.
There have been two other cases in Berbice recently which point to both the unrelenting corruption in the force and the political influence which continues to besiege it. New York-based Guyanese media personality, Ossie Rodgers was caught on camera assaulting a woman in a supermarket. No charge has yet been brought against him and he has returned to New York. Mr Rodgers is known to be close to the governing PPP/C and was once in the employ of a current member of the government.
This explains his arrogance and why the complainant says she was made to feel by the police as if she was the guilty party and harangued in a manner intended to have her drop the complaint against Mr Rodgers. This case is a telling exposé on all of the sanctimonious women’s advocates in this government, their attendant advocacy organisations and their constituents in Berbice. They seem to have no shame. The public awaits developments in this matter.
Finally, the apprehension, red-handed of four Berbice policemen who had butchered an animal that has been involved in an accident again underlines the gravity of the corruption problem that has faced the police force for decades and which is not coming to an end, petro dollars or no petro dollars. Einsteinian insanity.
