| AFC is hypocritical about corruption, cronyism and transparency |  |  |  |
| Written by HASEEF YUSUF AFC Councillor Region 6 |
| Monday, 14 May 2012 20:19 |
| THE Alliance For Change (AFC) is now embarking on a crusade to discredit me by maligning my character and cunningly evading and ignoring the questions raised in my letter, namely those relating to unaccountability, corruption and cronyism. It was most disappointing that at a meeting held at Trainline, Port Mourant, AFC’s Member of Parliament, Mr. Veerasammy Ramayya told the approximately 200 persons gathered there that a certain letter writer in the press is making false accusations against him because the PPP/C has bribed him to do so. I am that letter writer, so clearly I am now being accused of accepting a bribe from the PPP/C. This is preposterous. I want to make it abundantly clear that, to date, I have not even discussed this matter with anyone even remotely connected to the PPP/C. Is the Alliance For Change willing to delve into the same false and baseless propaganda that they so often attributed to the PPP/C? The Member of Parliament has admitted to the fact that he does not have receipts and bills to support his claims to $4.5M and, instead of the AFC trying to resolve this serious matter of unauthorised and unaccountable spending, they are continuing to allow him to appeal to the emotions of the members and supporters of the AFC by peddling false and unsubstantiated garbage. Moreover, two other AFC Councillors have openly agreed to the contents that I have written in the press. Will this MP be willing to malign their characters as well? Have they also been bribed? I have met with many members and supporters of the AFC who fully supported the stance I have taken since they themselves are now very much disenchanted by the corrupt practices by the MP and the complacency and condescending attitude of the party’s Chairman. Many of them have requested that I give them copies of my email to them and I have done so. I have analysed carefully what the MP has claimed in order to excuse his unaccountability and I want to share some of these findings with you. The MP claimed that he was feeding 30 or 40 members and supporters of the AFC during the campaign season. However, this ‘fact’ was not disclosed to the Campaign Manager and therefore we are back to the fact that this spending was unauthorised. How about the MP answering this question? If the MP wanted to reclaim these huge unauthorised sums of monies, would he not have ensured that he collected the necessary documentary evidence to support his exaggerated claims? No he did not! So now we have unsupported and unauthorized spending of $4.5M as well. Yet this same MP when he was interviewed by Stabroek News upon his swearing in said that he would fight for transparency and accountability: those are his platforms. Is this man serious? What he probably meant was that he is willing to hold the government accountable but not himself and the AFC? Dear reader, is this not hypocrisy in action? Well this reminds me of a very old clichÉ: ‘do what I say but don’t ever do what I do!’ Let us now analyse another fact. Millions of dollars were collected locally as well as from abroad by this MP and then, in addition, he was given huge amounts of monies by the Campaign Manager to fund AFC’s campaign activities. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to know that given the huge sums of monies entrusted to you makes it imperative and warrants you to be accountable. You had, as you claimed, 40 persons with you and you could not even come up with an accurate financial statement! You were sitting at home while myself and others were toiling with our hearts and souls yet you yourself had no time to keep accurate records. But then you had to relax in order to be prepared for your ‘comedy jams’ on TV and your live shows. But you nearly had a full parliament yet you could not provide accountability! And now you are in our Parliament bawling for accountability. Physician - heal thyself! Sorry you are not a physician; you are a ‘bush doctor.’ Not only that, you are hypocritically demanding budget cuts in our Parliament, but you could not have worked within your own campaign budget. If you guys are so good at using the proverbial ‘scissors,’ why did you not apply it to your own budget? We must practise what we preach. You are willing to take away food from 40 GINA and NCN workers but you were feeding 40 persons to ensure that they make you an MP so that you can snatch food from poor people! This is a shameless and despicable act which is devoid of any humanity, but our leader knows that in a war ‘collateral damage’ is inevitable, especially when you are shooting ‘scatterloads’. During your ‘comedy jam’ on TV and public shows, you were so vociferous about transparency that we actually believed you and I guess some fools still believe you, but the manner in which you rigged the election of the Regional Management Committee was no comedy. You were the one who invited members to that meeting, not the General Secretary and you ensured that only a selected handful of members were invited. You were ‘dead serious’ about maintaining your stranglehold on the ‘candy jar’ so you rigged the election to ensure this! So there goes the transparency which the AFC preaches but cannot practise. But then my dear MP you hit two birds with one stone, you made sure that your cronyism tendencies remained intact. Your female friend is now heading the office! On February 1, I spoke out against this type of cronyism and wanted the AFC to invite applications so that we offer everyone an equal opportunity to be employed. This is in line with human resources best practices. During the campaign you preached against this type of cronyism, you lambasted Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, our former President about helping his friends and not providing a level playing field. But again, what you preach, you do not practise. This seems to be your mantra and that of our leader who has to date failed to address this issue as well. In conclusion, I am also extremely positive that I will be expelled from the party since another councillor told me that that decision is already made. By the way, this person also agreed with my letter but said that I should not have gone public since it will destroy the AFC in Berbice. But I drew his attention to the fact that the AFC’s leader was unwilling to address the issue and to date has still not done so. I call on this person and others to come forward and be courageous in this battle against corruption and cronyism within our party. How can we hope to fight against these things if we are guilty of practising them? The AFC does not have a seal on your mouths and hearts. I call upon all you honest and dignified members and supporters of the AFC to wage war against the corruption in our midst! Are you willing to be blind to our own faults and wrongdoings? I guess not. |
| Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 May 2012 00:27 |
