Crime is down, corruption is still rampant.
Apr 30, 2017 Source
It is unknown what was really going on in the country during the tenure of the previous administration. Here were the drastically declined Maths and English grades, the dramatic loss of skills as people left the country – either because they were denied employment opportunities or because of the need to be better paid.
There are now revelations that seem so stunning as to be unbelievable. And these revelations leave one to wonder at the level of supervision that occurred.When President David Granger assumed office he caused to be held a number of forensic audits in many areas and the results were astounding.
Some of the findings have led to serious investigations and some are the subject of police investigation.
This past week the findings of a Commission of Inquiry are that there are ghost teachers in the education system. It is as if there are no areas that one can say are fraud-free. I know that there have been head teachers who fiddled with money provided to pay teachers.In one case a head teacher used money paid by parents for their children to write examinations. Needless to say, he went to jail, because there were no sacred cows. Now there is the belief that pay sheets are padded. How this is done is a mystery to me, since money for the teachers’ salaries are deposited into a bank.The actual pay sheets are sent to schools and the cheques are drawn. The teachers must then sign off the pay sheets. A failure to do so would see the next month’s pay sheets being withheld. For there to be ghost teachers ,the person responsible for preparing the cheques must be held responsible. The head of the school would most certainly know the teachers on the payroll.
There is also now the case of the situation with the Guyana Gold Board. For some time now there have been cases of people fiddling with the gold receipts. Different sums were paid to sellers and everyone involved was happy. People sold gold of a certain impurity as pure gold and smiled.The police are now investigating the situation, and if reports are to be believed, some innocent people have been caught up in the probe. One particular incident has taken centre stage and it has spread far beyond the individual.It has caused a senior banking official to lose his job. An underling encashed some cheques that may have cost the bank most of its profits since the money was unsecured.
I can only wait to see the profits declared by the bank in the near future. I know that my dividends would be affected. So here I am taking no part in the transactions but having to pay.I am already paying for those teachers who pursued studies at my expense then moved on to private educational institutions. I paid for those who opted to leave Guyana. I still remember the days when foreign powers came to Guyana to recruit teachers. Those days saw Guyana’s best leaving, many of them for good.But it is not all bad in Guyana.
There was the time when crime was at a premium. The crime wave began during the tenure of the previous government and became a campaign issue. The then opposition said that it would put a lid on crime. When it came to office indeed it fought crime with a vengeance.The police began to report declines in the incidence, but the new opposition laughed and called the police report a joke. It did not matter that many of certain crimes occurred in areas controlled by the opposition. Former Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee accused the police of fudging the reports and those media houses aligned to his party echoed his views.
I do notice that crime is down, but there is no corresponding acknowledgement. Instead, there continues to be talk of witch-hunt and victimization. I try to understand the witch-hunt ,knowing that anyone who is about forty years old began working during the previous administration. Most of them are still in the system doing what they have been doing all the time.They have been arresting criminals if they are policemen and solving crime at a rate that is unprecedented in recent times. They are processing documents for people seeking Government services; they are issuing contracts and some continue to pay for shoddy work. Nothing much has changed to the extent that the people are saying that the new government represents an exchange.No one is stopping to think that the change they desire does not come overnight. They do not realize that when they continue to offer incentives for a service they are sustaining the old habit.
There is still the movement of cocaine and marijuana, but at the same time there are the busts that are hurting people. Money is lost with every bust and while former President Bharrat Jagdeo keeps denying that drug money was helping the economy, there are now people who say that the new Government should relax its fight against illegal drugs and let the economy grow.But while the crackdown is on, fewer people are being killed. Gunshots do not ring out in the night as they used to and civilian life is a bit more comfortable.
On the wider scene, we are finding out that the previous administration undertook projects without any feasibility studies, at great cost to the nation. For example, the Amaila Falls road that was to have cost US$16.4 million ended up costing US$100 million. This was money spent by the National Industrial and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) and the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.Then there is the Cheddi Jagan International Airport expansion project. This was not properly thought out, so after almost US$150 million, the airport would outgrow its capacity in another five years. It will be able to accommodate no more than four international carriers at a time because there will not be enough parking space on the apron.
With that money Guyana could have built another airport from scratch at a more spacious location, perhaps in Region Three or even on the East Coast of Demerara, freeing up the East Bank Demerara Highway. If only there was a little more thought.
