Commentary
guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com
Guyana: Conflict of Interest in High Places
Posted April 26th. 2008 - by Eusi Kwayana.
The Editor
Stabroek News
Georgetown.
Dear Editor,
A family owns a printer or just a small shop. One spouse does the receiving and spending of cash and the other does the accounting. This is Iree as long as they agree about what they are doing After all it is a family business and both if them have labour in it and shares in it. They can. if they wish, spend from the business for their household and charge the expenditure as drawings. cash under drawings for their household. They need not be under the same roof. The one active on the enterprise can take home figures to the other, or send them across to where the other is. It’s a family business. Even so, the form of business matters.
State enterprises though are not family property, but belong to all citizens and should operate under different rules. We know too much about temptation nowadays. We should not place people in a position that will lead other people even to suspect that one family member can protect the faults, if any, or slips of the other. You may say there are no faults, but just as well there may be and it is better assurance for the public when they do not see this kind of positioning. Former Controller of Customs Clarence Chue came under heavy doubt and propaganda from political sections because his brother became a businessman importing goods through the Customs, with similar accommodation. as other importers. He was rendered redundant under a specially crafted provision of the Revenue Act, a provision not in the original Canadian Act which was used as a model. This is after the Courts had, rightly or not, rejected accusations against Chue.
A retired Auditor General (acting) is now Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Works. This appointment raises concerns of the “length of arm space “ between executing agencies and oversight agencies. Public servants are not generally ignorant of financial regulations and guidelines.
It was disappointing to me to learn today that a relative of the Minister Finance of Guyana has a relative, not a distant one, but his life partner, his wife, high up in the Auditor General’s Office where everything that may come under her scrutiny will somehow be under his financial management and responsibility. Of course the woman must be presumed to have integrity like any other person and of course she has a right to work. Perhaps she was even there before he became Minister of Finance.
This is not the first time we are running into such a thing. When the Integrity Commission was first established, the WPA objected and we felt, I think correctly, that it was not fair to the public to the wife of a Minister appointed as a member of the Commission.
The Office of the President seems to have a free hand in deploying its friends. Dr. Frimpong, who has been one of the President’s men and a key member of his economic team that was very selective, and rushed very slowly to support the same sector, will now head a USAID agency that is responsible for supporting competitiveness in the private sector. His former principal is no doubt satisfied with the switch and it is hoped that the private sector had at least been consulted. One section of the private sector that can benefit from a policy of competitiveness is the construction sector. It is an open secret that African construction and a few non-PPP Indian contractors as well have been neglected since the PPP ‘s return and the ‘return of democracy’. These enterprises must now be very low in competitiveness, compared to those pampered by the new government. If this is a racial comment it is because it is dealing with racial and political discriminatio. The Procurement Act has merely made the power of the government to choose contractors one exercised under the law. The government is enjoying the argument over the Procurement Commission. The Commission even when in full operation will not matter, because of the way the Act was crafted, giving all powers to the Minister. By the time matters reach it, the contract awards are history. This is a matter that requires daily attention until it is solved. Those whose who ignore it simply do understand our social structure.
When President Jagdeo presided at the January meeting on National Competitiveness I doubt that o=it thought of this kind of loss of competitiveness, due toa misuse of state power.
The 1992 cabinet’s first act of reparations, was to take land at Ogle from the State owned sugar industry , morally belonging to the sugar works and cane farmers as a first choice and trade it out to party leaders with the official explanation that they had struggled and deserved the “sugar”. They did this after alleging that some departing PNC officials had scuttled the system in leaving office. With an air of victorious generosity they took no action but went on to teach new lessons of privilege and There are very fine houses there.
There are reports of cases in which the Constitution has been ignored on the matter of the Consolidated Fund. There is now a report and I put it out here since it is a public matter. It is said that two former State owned banks, the Agri Bank and the Coop Bank have set up successor special agencies to collect debt, that they are collecting debt and that the revenues are not yet being kept in the Consolidated Fund.
The Constitution orders that all revenues of the government be deposited in the Consolidated Fund. An exception is where by law a fund is established for such revenues, This is how the government in 1972 amended the Guyana Lotteries Act of 1963 to allow for a special account to be kept by the Accountant General. However, this fund was exclusively for the payment of lottery prizes and charges relating to the lottery. Expenditure for any other purpose was not allowed by this amendment and would be irregular. The same 1972 lotteries amendment provides that if there is a deficit in the lottery operation at any time the amount should be charged on the Consolidated Fund “which is hereby charged with such payment.”.
The funds collected as outstanding debt to the banks listed above can be spent as a slush fund only if some law allows them to be spent in that way. Without such a law the revenues should go to the Consolidated Fund. The report that out these new funds reached me along with suggestions that the revenues were being applied for purposes approved by the Executive, whereas the National Assembly is the financial authority. It is even morally so when it boasts of being fairly elected.
Before money from the lotteries account can be lawfully spent on anything but lottery prizes and expenses the legal advisers of government will have to point out to it the way of legality.
Yours respectfully
Eusi Kwayana
What is the point of these killings?
Posted February 1st. 2008 - by Eusi Kwayana.
Dear Editor,
Born in Lusignan and grown in Buxton, I state publicly my sympathy with those people on the East Coast of Demerara who have suffered at the hands of lawless gunmen or official security forces, trained to secure officials only.
There has been a string of atrocities, coming one after the other, from murder of a mother to torture of civilians and soldiers. But none can compare with the cold- blooded Lusignan carnage of the innocent, as if some new Herod has ordered the slaughter of a new generation of children as part of some scheme of wild justice.
I merely ask the gunmen's commander, in what way can these Lusignan killings ever compensate or comfort those in Buxton tortured, wounded or killed.
I am sure that Guyanese across the board know deep inside that we are being ruled by rulers. As Karen de Souza exclaimed in the late 70s in other circumstances, "There is no government!"
There is no government
Posted January 29th. 2008 - by Eusi Kwayana.
Dear Editor,
Born in Lusignan and grown in Buxton, I state publicly my sympathy with those people on the East Coast of Demerara who have suffered at the hands of lawless gunmen or official security forces, trained to secure officials only.. There has been a string of atrocities, coming one after the other, from murder of a mother to torture of civilians and soldiers. But none can compare with the cold- blooded Lusignan carnage of the innocent, as if some new Herod has ordered the slaughter of a new generation of children as part of some scheme of wild justice. .
I merely ask for the gunmen Command, in what way can these Lusignan killings ever compensate or comfort those in Buxton tortured, wounded or killed.
I am sure that Guyanese across the board know deep inside that we are being ruled by rulers. As Karen de Souza exclaimed in the late 70 s in other circumstances, “There is no government!”
Rigging is not confined to one side
Posted January 23rd. 2008 - by Eusi Kwayana.
I always have to pose myself the question whether to reply or not. The public knows that I write these letters in my own name. That's my first point. Many try to write about others from behind a screen, often hiding identity. Unless they fear violence, I will not respect the opinions expressed. This is cheap. When you look at the substance, it is already in some book. Of course many write in their own name and their opinions deserve respect.
One writer listed me among some he said made excuses for Guyanese Africans. Wise one, please know that Africans, like other humans, do not need excuses. As Terrence, an Africa said of himself, in very good Latin, We are human and nothing human is foreign to us. If this Wise one ever finds a fault, or a weakness, or a crime or a virtue that is special to Africans, I wish he will let the world know.
Mr Kissoon has made the great blunder of writing positively about me. Few things have earned him as much opposition. He has always to answer for it. They do not know that I have also been an object of his strictures. The second point in this letter comes out of Mr. Kissoon's statement. I hope he did not say that I am perfect, because I am not. But how dare anyone to speak well of our best known "racist" . So a writer asks him questions which I believe he may not be able to answer. Was Mr. Kissoon responsible for what I did as Minister of Home Affairs in 1968, - when I have never held, sought or accepted ministerial office since 1953? Folk lore enters the poltical discussion. I like folk lore. But the writer has to make me a Minister in 1968 so as to "fulfill the book". The person he should ask is James Goodluck, who wrote in the Chronicle recently that with my help the PNC scored 105 per cent of the registered vote in Buxton in 1968. It only shows that in those days, as is the case now, a Minister was above the law and could do anything.
If we are to discuss my election activity when I was no longer PPP, I would start before 1968, in particular 1964. Younger PPP supporters should know how I offended the PPP during the 1964 elections campaign. In the 1953 campaign Mr.Burnham used to say "you can register if you are 21 or look like 21." Dr Jagan's version was "if you can have a family at 18, you can vote at 18."
My creole proverb tells me, "When blind man say he guh pelt you, he got brick under he foot." (if a blind man threatens to stone you, be sure he already has the stone under his foot.") In 1964 at "claims and objections" time I went to Vigilance Magistrate's Court and file objections to certain residents of Enterprise who had registered. Magistrate De Souza was angry. He chided me in the open public hearing, but had to order the persons challenged to bring their birth certificates at the next hearing. They returned with them and the magistrate was much calmer. He had to strike most of them off for registering under age. I have no evidence that such tricks were attempted in any other place. All I know is that the PPP never forgotten my challenges. I had up to1952 been a primary school teacher and knew the school records. Before filing objections I had caused some names to be examined for dates of birth in the school's Admission Register. So while some were inflating the votes cast, some were inflating the voters registered. For the 1953 election, registration was by door to door enumeration, largely on trust.
I have never been involved in the PNC's rigging or election machinery. I understood the manner of rigging , not through the famous films which I saw only much later, being isolated. In 1973 I did not vote, stayed at home all day , with ears glued to the radio, and used my imagination. I listened to all who were interviewed and to the various reports. The plan used in that year became clear to me. It is true that because of what I call an automatic voting bloc after 1955, the PPP has not stolen a government. Their supporters were the first to develop a sheep like attitude to elections. Their opposite numbers learned this attitude later.
Although the PPP did not steal, nor have to steal , a government, its attitude to petty cheating is no better than that of its twin. This fact is a matter of public record in our law reports. I shall welcome a denial of this fact from one of the PPP zealots. Up to its last election in 2001, the WPA has been the only true party of the better known ones of fair elections, engaging in not the slightest false registrations or false voting. Unfortunately for this there is no reward on earth
Rohee's Loaded revelation on Torture
Posted January 23rd. 2008 - by Eusi Kwayana.
Dear
Editor
Stabroek
News
Georgetown.
Dear Editor,
Minister of Home Affairs the Hon. Clement Rohee has now discharged a loaded revelation in public. His name, Clement, please note, means ”kind”. His revelation raises many issues.
He has revealed that in a secret poll of interest to his Ministry’s reputation, and personally carried out by him, and now presented as valid, he found something. He found that Guyanese were more interested in the arrival of their barrels with goodies, with getting a house lot and other material matters than with the “alleged” torture of two young men of Buxton.
His process, he believes, is without bias although he, the polster, is a most interested party. He does not explain the weighting of his poll. It would be important if he polled a balanced number of persons, with and without house lots, anxious and not anxious over barrels of goodies. Since the young men would be best known in their home village, how many responses did he get from there?
If the Minister really wants to employ a credible method of public opinion polling, he would be well advised, if it must be done by a Minister, of all people, to engage at least a Minister far from Home Affairs as possible. I know he would consider me an upstart if I were to recommend an independent polster, or a poll by any media except the unswerving Chronicle, so at least, let us try another Minister. It is strange that he did not think of asking GINA to carry out the poll.
Hon. Mr Rohee as a Minister took the Oath of Office binding him to “bear true faith and allegiance, to the people” and to “honour, uphold and preserve the Ccnstitution” , a Constitution that outlaws torture absolutely. It provides, ”No person shall be subjected to torture, ot to inhuman or degrading treatment.” He does not honour it when he brushes aside one of its fundamental provisions. The only acceptable defence in the Courts to a motion supported by evidence is ,not “national security” or “law and order” or crime prevention .The only defence is that a Court of Law ordered such treatment. Such a court will not be found.
People should not see this as a race matter. All Guyanese should demand and deserve justice. When Arnold Rampersaud was being harrowed and prosecuted with a porous indictment in the 1970s a lot of Africans, especially in the WPA, did not play the game and treat it as a race matter. The multi-racial WPA raised a hue and cry, drawing a very mixed assortment of people into the fight for justice. While Walter Rodney, moved Georgetown from an anti- Indian response to the case to one of reason , others like Moses Bhagwan worked at close range with lawyers revealing inconsistencies in the evidence as the trials went on. Tacuma Ogunseye and Sase Omo challenged the mind set of PNC supporters squarely. The National Council of Black lawyers of the USA and lawyers from the Caribbean including Maurice Bishop and Guyanese lawyers of all races did not stand idly by. The PPP claimed that the collapse of the case was due to international solidarity. But the accused wrote letters to several Guyanese expressing his understanding of the part they played.
Yet in this torture case, with no allegation that Sumner and Jones had assaulted PPP supporters, the PPP has been silent to the point of dumbness. Is this how the ruling party hopes to set an example and play a part in national reconciliation? The General Secretary of the PPP recently told the public that the party had reprimanded a Minister. The government is silent on that member accountable to the the Cabinet and the people. . In the Suimner-Jones case of reported torture, a matter of the highest public interest, the PPP has given no leadership. Is it indifferent to the reported torture of citizens it may see as supporting an opposition party? .
The Mnister himself has a strange way of letting it be known what is important and what is not. As a result, some security personnel may take the cue from him and not reaslise that torture in an extreme violation of a human being, offensive to the constitution and the free conscience .
I notice from the press that the security personnel who hosted the two young men . Victor Jones and Patrick Sumner, had been asking them to identify gunmen in Buxton. Has there been any use of similar outlawed methods to identify members of the Phantom, or are those too well known to the police
I recall that an older Buxton villager on TV, when questioned by Chris Ram, recommended that an official figure open a public conversation with the gunmen. Other steps would follow. A government must have imagination and creativity, anticipation. They laughed at that recommendation. Probably the elder was in his dotage. We learned later that persons suspected of running drugs had a better idea, and the Phantom was born. The President in his deliberate misjudgment refused to allow the Gajraj Commission to include the East Coast disturbances, along with the link between Gajraj and the Phanton, even though the two issues were joined at the navel. And look where we are now. The state faces a strong allegation that the security forces are torturing young men to find out about gunmen in Buxton. .
I do not know the two young men personally. They faced the press on release, at Eve Leary, not at their homes. The press people saw them. The army chief admitted that they entered without bodily marks and emerged with bodily marks. He like the police denied his personnel's involvement in torture. But the denial is not a denial that took note of the allegations Such denials will not stand up to a cross -examination.
The place for the sounding out and probing of these detailed torture reports is the High Court of Guyana. The allegations are so grave that they ought to be placed in court pleadings before the High Court and the authorities in charge of the forces accused ought to place their own pleadings before the court as well. The DPP will have no discretion in such a case to remove the cases from the court whether pressured to do so or not.
The PNC dictatorship has been off the scene of full fifteen years now. It has left its own heritage of civil and criminal excesses. These excesses are in danger of being outdone And, regardless sof the partitioning of history, it is what they experience that will stay with the young generation. We must thank Minister Rohee for being so candid.