Dear Editor,
I am pleased to see President Irfaan Ali intervening in the affairs of GPL. Unfortunately, he should not have had to do so, but he has no other choice, since those he delegated the direct responsibility to so do, have failed him, unashamedly too. Despite this, many are of the view that nothing will come of this―his intervention that is, such that the status quo will remain. Well I beg to differ, and I will explain why. I note with interest, a letter in yesterday’s Stabroek News authored by former Minister, David Patterson, who accused the Government of covering up the mismanagement of GPL.
Contrary to that view, I have arrived at a different conclusion based on findings in both cases. The conclusion is that, particularly in the case of GPL, the management of the entity has succeeded over the last decade, up until now, facilitated, inter alia, the complicity at the subject ministerial level, to have manipulated the politicians at the executive level (the Presidency) thereby effectively shielding their incompetence, mediocrity, mismanagement, and poor management, by design which aided their many alleged wrongdoings especially in the area of procurement. This explains why they have failed to furnish their statutory reports to the National Assembly thus evading scrutiny and from being held accountable.
Former Minister, David Patterson, who now emerges with all of the solutions, owes this nation an explanation as to why under his stewardship as former subject minister, GPL failed to comply with Section 67 of the Public Corporations Act. He failed to hold GPL accountable largely because he was complicit, so too was former President, David Granger, who failed to hold his subject minister accountable. Conversely, President Ali is ensuring that he does not commit the mistake of his predecessor. The President has personally intervened and everyone with responsibility are being held accountable. For this, the President must be commended, and I reject the “saintly missive” authored by the former Minister, unless he subjects himself to providing the nation with explanations as to why those reports were never laid over to the National Assembly.
I cannot sit idly by observing the many forces that are working assiduously to undermine the President on a daily basis. That’s not going to happen. My self-conferred mandate, which I have stated many times publicly, the reason I do what I do, is to help the Presidency, and by extension the Government to succeed in delivering its mandate to the people.
Sincerely,
Joel Bhagwandin
