alyuh feel free to make the relevant parallels to PPP Guyana and the 'business activities' of certain associates and best friends of Bharat Jagdeo

admirers of Ralph Ramkarran, please come in . . . he wrote quite eloquently back in the day about eerily similar Guyana crime activities during the go go RAT decade and a half

APNU+AFC is most corrupt Govt. in English speaking Caribbean – PPP

Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) yesterday pronounced the Coalition Government as the most corrupt Government in the post-independent English speaking Caribbean.
“We say without any fear of contradiction that this is the most corrupt Government, which has ever held office in independent Guyana,” the PPP noted.
Corruption under this Government, according to the PPP, has reached to such alarming levels that the March 2018, U.S State Department Report’s International Narcotics Control Strategy identifies Government corruption, for the first time in Guyana’ history, as one of the main source of money-laundering.
“In short, we have a Government of money-launders,” the PPP outlined in a press statement.
The media release from the PPP came days after the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) filed charges against on Wednesday against former Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh, and former head of the National Industrial Commercial and Investment Limited (NICIL), Winston Brassington.
Both men served under the PPP Government and are accused of selling prime state lands to private developers below market price and without property valuation.
In three short years, according to the PPP, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) + Alliance For Change (AFC) Administration has managed to completely by-pass the public procurement process, mandated by law, and has handed to its cronies and financiers, hundreds of contracts to the value of billions of dollars.
“Indeed, its corruption is only surpassed by its incompetence,” the PPP stated.
The party listed a series of events which it said points to corrupt practices.
The PPP described the Coalition as a Government that refuses to submit itself to the Integrity Act, which requires the submission of their assets and earnings of Ministers and public officials.
Further, the party stated that the Government voted against a Motion, tabled by the PPP in the National Assembly, which called upon all Members of Parliament (MP) to disclose their Integrity Commission submissions as well as their income tax submissions for the past 10 years.
Additionally, the PPP stated that the Government surreptitiously stashed in a secret bank account, US$18M, received from oil giant ExxonMobil as a signing bonus and uttered not a word about it to the public, for over a year, until the information was leaked to the press.
HEALTH
The party outlined that in one single transaction, the Minister of Health, Volda Lawrence ordered the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) to purchase $620M in drugs and pharmaceuticals supplies from an identified supplier, without any resort to the procurement process.
The PPP stated that the Minister then shamelessly and publicly accepted a gift of a freezer from the supplier to store some of the pharmaceuticals. What is worse, the pharmaceuticals were acquired at a cost of over 100% more than their market value.
Further, the PPP pointed to the Government’s decision to rent a house in Albouystown for $14M per month to store pharmaceuticals. The opposition noted that the house can only yield a rental of approximately $100,000, on the open market.
The PPP stated that over $300M has thus far been paid in rental for this bond.
“Again, there was no resort to any form of procurement, in relation to the rental of this house in Albouystown,” the PPP stated.
This very landlord, the PPP stated, is a member of the People’s National Congress (PNC). The landlord, according to the PPP, rents a building from a sitting Minister, which is situated in the heart of the city, for $800,000 per month.
D’URBAN PARK
The PPP noted that Government expended over $2B of taxpayers’ dollars in the construction of the D’Urban Park facilities and established a company that was given the major construction works under this project, comprising a Minister and known members of the PNC.
“Again, there was no resort to any form of public procurement. Despite repeated demands, they cannot produce any credible records to the office of the Auditor General, in relation to this project,” the PPP stated.
“Whenever this Government resorts to the procurement process and it does not yield the contractor of their choice, it manufactures a reason to scrap the process and restart it until the desired contractor is awarded the contract.
“At the level of the Regional Tender Boards, this practice is even worse. The Regional Executive Officers are allowed to manipulate the process so that cronies and party loyalists are awarded the contracts.
“This Government has surreptitiously negotiated a petroleum sharing agreement with Exxon Mobil and for over a year refused to make it public despite thunderous public pressure. Dozens of questions have been raised about this contract, but this Government has persistently refused to answer any of them.”
The party said it observes the deafening silence of former crusaders against corruption, in the face of the massive corruption, which permeates the Government.
“We further ask the public to note that whenever these crusaders and others, troubled by their consciences, speak out against the corruption now taking place, they duplicitously make a comparison with the PPP/C Administration as to create a veneer of balance,” the PPP stated.
Given the matters outlined by the PPP, the party questioned the audacity of the administration to accuse others of corruption. The PPP accused the Government of manipulating the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and directing SOCU to institute fabricated and malicious charges against political opponents and highly qualified professional Guyanese, who have served their country and their people with distinction.

The thieves who will soon be BlackList . 

Dave posted:

APNU+AFC is most corrupt Govt. in English speaking Caribbean – PPP

Leader of the Opposition [MASTER TIEFMAN] Bharrat Jagdeo

lol

SCANDALS GALORE: Opposition PPP/C exposes 25 scandals within 16 months of APNU+AFC coalition Gov’t

Guyana’s Parliamentary Opposition has slammed the  APNU+AFC coalition government for its alleged involvement in more scandals and corruptions in 16 months in office than successive PPPC administrations were accused of in 23 years!

Following is the full text of a statement from the Office of the Opposition Leader, and which was read by PPPC Executive Member  and Parliamentary Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira, at a recent news conference:

The Parliamentary Opposition has been diligently monitoring the APNU+AFC government use of public funds and the levels of transparency and accountability.

From June 10, 2015 to August 8, 2016, in a matter of fourteen (14) months of the APNU+AFC Coalition government, we have uncovered 16 scandals — an average of a scandal for each month. But the month of August 2016 “took the cake”– or so we thought– with the exposure of three (3) scandals (the Sussex St. Drug Bond, BK International/GoG settlement and two (2) fuel licenses issued to the head of Guyana Water Incorporated).

The August 8th, 2016 sitting of the National Assembly will go down as a day of scandals, exposures of the incompetence of this government, their lack of disclosure, lack of transparency, accountability and their violations of the constitution.

Regrettably it has not ended there. The month of September 2016 has continued to bring new scandals with four (4) new scandals and another one pending.

The latest tally of scandals and corrupt practices has now reached 25 in the sixteen (16) months of this government’s life.

The APNU+AFC government has been exposed with more scandals and corruptions in 16 months than successive PPPC administrations were accused of in 23 years!!!!!

HERE IS THE LIST OF 25 SCANDALS THUS FAR:-

 1)      May 2015

The cost of the inauguration ceremonies at the Parliament Buildings and, more particularly, the one at the Providence National Stadium has never been revealed.

2) May 2015

The removal of eight (8) containers containing steel by BK International from the Ministry of Public Health compound worth millions of dollars–in the first week after government changed— in violation of a court order. The government did nothing to retrieve the containers and has been silent.

3) July-August 2015

The dismissal of 1972 Amerindian community service officers at “one stroke of the pen” with no cause by the third (3^rd) Vice-President and Minister of Indigenous Affairs. Despite a promise by VP Allicock in the National Assembly, during the 2015 Budget debate that the government would create a new programme to hire Amerindian youths, they instead replaced this programme with the Hinterland Entrepreneurial Youth Skills (HEYS) programme. HEYS is a six-month training programme with no entrepreneurial or employment component which is under severe duress as there are complaints that the facilitators and students have not received their stipends despite the budgetary provision of $1 billion.

4) July – December 2015

The appointment of 33 foreign honourary advisors to the government and the appointment of a top-heavy bureaucracy of Presidential and Ministerial advisors which have only been partially disclosed in the National Assembly in response to Questions to Ministers in 2016. The total numbers are approximated to be nearing 100 advisors (local and foreign) at a huge cost to the taxpayers.

5) August 2015 – September 2015

India/GoG funded Specialty Hospital – the government gave a contract to a company, Fedders Lloyd (that the Vice President Khemraj Ramjattan was its lawyer) without going to tender at a price yet unknown and in violation of the procurement laws. Despite public outcry, the government refused to terminate the contract for the Specialty Hospital. The company was delisted by the IDB and the Indian government and Eximbank withdrew the money for the loan. There has been no disclosure as to how much Fedders Lloyd was paid and what work had been done when the company was delisted and the project halted.

6)  September 2015

The first act of the government was to give themselves enormous salary increases between 50 -100 % of what the former government ministers received. This was quietly done in September 2015 and the parliamentary opposition had to wage a struggle in Parliament to bring a motion to reverse this. When the motion was finally heard in December, it was defeated by the government’s one seat majority.

It should be remembered that the media having leaked the fact that the government was embarking on increasing the salaries of the President, VPs and Ministers, Minister Trotman, on behalf of the government, denied that the government was contemplating any salary increases for the Ministers. This was also denied during the debate on the 2015 Budget in August 2015.

Having gone into recess mid-September, the government stealthily published Order No.6 of 2015 in the Official Gazette, dated September 25^th, 2015, increasing their salaries and making it retroactive to July 1, 2015.

Contrast this act with the government’s refusal to increase the salaries of the public servants in accordance with their campaign promises.

7) December 2015 – May 2016

Durban Park Development Project (DPk) for the Jubilee celebrations. The government has refused to provide information on the “private company” which was in charge of the preparations of the DPk prior to the Minister of Public Infrastructure “take over” of the project on the orders of the President. Who is/was this private company?

We do know that the Minister (David Patterson) publicly stated that he spent $150M from his maintenance budget in April 2016 and requested another $400M in the August 2016.He could not answer in the National Assembly if this was the final amount needed to cover the costs of the project nor did he provide the name of the private company. Nor could he say how many companies gave donations and how much to this private company? It is estimated that the costs when finally exposed will be close to $1 billion- for a one day event.

8)  September to December 2015

President pardoned over 100 convicted felons in 2015 and stated that this would be done annually. He promised that these would be felons with non-violent crimes and juvenile offenders. In fact this was not true. A number of these persons had been sentenced for violent crimes and a number of them are back in prison.

The parliamentary Opposition questioned the criteria and process used to select these persons who were pardoned but the Speaker denied the questions being put “as an abuse of questioning”.

9) Late last year/December 2015

The RUDISA case at the CCJ and the pay out to RUDISA: The APNU and AFC twice caused the defeat in the 10^th Parliament of attempts by the PPPC government to amend the Customs Act in order to pre-empt the case going to the CCJ and save the country millions of US dollars.

The APNU+AFC Coalition government settled to repay the entire amount of RUDISA  (USD$16M) claim without any negotiations for a debt repayment schedule and despite the fact that the company owed and appears to still owe millions of dollars in taxes to Guyana.

The first payment was made late last year and the second budgeted for in the 2016 Budget.

10)  September 2015 – April 2016

Hundreds of Millions of dollars spent by the Government and the Georgetown Mayor and City Council on the “Clean Up Campaign” in the city with no public tendering and handpicked companies. In some cases, new companies were created with no experience to facilitate this corruption. There has been no accountability of the amount of monies spent and the Mayor and Town Clerk have rebuffed efforts to allow the Auditor General’s office to do a forensic audit.

11) March/April 2016

The write off of debts owed to Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the nation by DDL worth billions of dollars  (April 2016). If DDL did not issue a press release announcing the write off this would not have been known.

12) April 2016

Other writes off of debts to the GRA by other companies, who financed the APNU+AFC coalition electoral campaign, are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Minister Trotman said these companies have to be compensated for their financial investment-

13) April 2016

Following the March 18, 2016 Local Government Elections, Minister Bulkan in violation of the statutes governing the local government system, appointed the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, and the five (5) Chairpersons and vice chairperson of the five (5) NDCs in the six (6) tied LAAs.  All of these persons were APNU although there was a plurality of votes in 3 of the six (6) tied LAAs for the PPP and 3 for the APNU+AFC.

14) April-May 2016

Write offs by the APNU+AFC dominated Georgetown Municipal Council to many companies for millions of dollars owed in rates and taxes for undisclosed amounts. This is a City Council that is now cash-strapped, cannot pay contractors for garbage collection and timely payment of salaries to its employees.

The cost to the Treasury of these write offs by the GRA, Georgetown  Municipal Council and other Local Authority Areas alone earmarked in this list of scandals is estimated to be between 23% to 36 % of the total 2016 Budget.

15) April 2016- present

Parking meters contract – with no public tendering, no involvement of the Georgetown City Council, no consultation with the citizens – the scandal deepens, even as the APNU+AFC Georgetown Mayor is being advised to do some damage control by attempting to amend the 49-year contract and make it less embarrassing for the government.

16) July – August 2016

The three-year Pharmacy Bond contract between the Ministry of Public Health and the Linden Holding Company was not tendered for by Minister Norton’s own admission on the floor of the National Assembly. The PPP/C will be submitting its motion of privilege calling for the Speaker to send the Minister of Public Health to the Privilege Committee for wilfully misleading the National Assembly and the nation.

17) January 2016-August 2016

The GoG/BK International settlement of $1.17 B for Haggs Bosche:  The Ministry of Communities’ settlement of $1.17B to BK International for the Haags Bosche project cme to light as a result of a Supplementary Financial Paper on August 8^th where the country learnt that this settlement was made and would be paid in three tranches, even though the court did not award costs to BK Int’l. The government paid BK Int’l the first third of the payment in January 2016 which begs the question – where did this money come from? It was not provided for in the 2015 budget, nor was there any SFP in the interim nor in the 2016 Budget or since to cover this first payment of  G$500M. The August Supplementary Financial Paper covers the payment of the second tranche of $501M to BK int’l from the Consolidated Fund. The third payment the Minister stated would be reflected in the 2017 budget. This is a scandal like the RUDISA and the DDL write offs.

Interesting and of note is that BK International is being paid the entire ten million U.S. dollars ($10M USD) for the contract though BK Int’l only worked for three of the five years of the contract at substandard work. The PPP/C government had terminated the contract due to substandard work and delays.  Ministers Bulkan and Patterson, in late 2015, both publicly stated that BK Int’l had done substandard work on the project!

18) April and August 2016

Two fuel scandals relating to the issuance of fuel licenses for the importation of fuel to companies that are made up of persons related to top officials or who are top officials themselves in the government who have no fuel bonds, no storage facilities and no offices.

The withdrawal of the fuel importation license to the Chinese company which has invested millions of US dollars for storage facilities appears to have been calculated to make room for these alternative importers.

In August the second set of fuel licenses came to light regarding licenses issued to Dr. Van West Charles, CEO and other officials in GWI under a private company.

It should be noted that an applicant for a fuel license has to acquire an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and four (4) additional licences – provision of a bond under detailed specifications, transportation, storage, importation, and restrictions on where fuel storage can be located. It normally takes a long time for an applicant to obtain all these licenses—impossible to do so in nine months. The licenses were issued in the month that Van West Charles became CEO GWI and therefore he had ample time to remove himself from the company.

The media is reminded that right here at the parliamentary opposition weekly press briefing several months ago, we had exposed this gentleman’s role in soliciting donations for pipes for the wells in Region 9. As of today, the Brazilian contractors hired by GWI to dig eight (8) wells in the Rupununi region are unable to pay their workers as they allege that GWI is not paying them (the contractors).

19) August 2016

Consistent and frequent violation of the Procurement Act by line ministries — such as  the Minister of Agriculture, admitted that the MOA nor the NDIA  had gone out to tender for works totalling $234M due to emergency works for El Nino and  flooding in regions 2,3,4, 5,6, 8, 10. In fact, these monies should have been provided for in the SPF # 2 of 2016 for the Consolidated Fund.

20) July and August 2016

Requests for information during questions to Ministers and questions during the debate on the two  SFPs on August 8^th revealed that the govt ministers’ will not release contracts unless they have the permission of the other person/company/party to the contract. This is unheard of and a violation of the role of the legislature under the constitution to hold the government accountable.

21) September 2016

Undermining the judicial process- the establishment of a Presidential Tribunal to inquire, investigate and recommend whether Carvil Duncan, Chairman of the Public Service Commission, should be removed from office for inability to discharge his duties.

Since the charges against Mr. Duncan are still pending before a Magistrate’s of Georgetown Court, the establishment of this tribunal is premature, pre-emptive and repugnant to the very “due process” to which the President says that his Administration is committed.

22) September 2016 

Auditor General’s special audit of GECOM expenditure in 2015 prior to the general and regional elections—this is on-going, with the use of sole sourcing by the GECOM estimated to amount to $700M in the months prior to the May 2015 elections.  However, unlike in other investigations where the heads were sent on administrative leave such as the Head of NICIL, Head of the NDIA, PS of the Ministry of Legal Affairs, head of the (Georgetown Public Hospital) to name a few, this CEO has not been sent off on administrative leave. 23)

23) September 2016

$240M spent on refurbishing the Kitty Market. Photographic evidence exposes the corruption by City Hall. There are no scope of works, estimates, etc, that is available and the project was not put to tender as the city has hired the workers and is implementing the works itself.

24) September 2016

The awarding of the contract for boxed juices for the school feeding programme to a Surinamese beverage company owned by RUDISA that was not the lowest or even the second lowest bid. The impact on the local farmers and manufacturers will be felt. DDL has come out publicly to criticise this, so too, has another company – Guyana Beverages.

25) September 2016

Award of the contract for quarry stone to a Surinamese company for the CJIA will have tremendous impact on the local quarries. Toolsie Persaud, one of the stone producers has protested. There is more to come to light on this issue and this we have earmarked as an emerging scandal where government needs to provide answers.

The media will observe that we have not dealt with the discriminatory dismissals of hundreds of employers in the public service and in the state entities on the basis of their ethnic and assumed political affiliation which started in June 2015 and is continuing unabated. This we shall deal with in detail at another press briefing with facts.

In summary therefore by month:-

2- May 2015

5- July/December 2015

1-September 2015 to April 2016

2- December 2015- May 2016

5- March/May 2016

5- July/August 2016

5- September 2016

These scandals which have been uncovered expose a level of corruption and discrimination that has not been seen since the Burnham era. The APN+AFC government lacks transparency and accountability, and is prepared to undermine and even violate the procurement and financial laws of this country as well as other constitutional provisions and statutory provisions.

Dave posted:

APNU+AFC is most corrupt Govt. in English speaking Caribbean – PPP

PPP Leader of the Opposition
[MASTER TIEFMAN] Bharrat Jagdeo

ahem

All Indians should leave Africa or risk being genocide.

Doesn’t the PNC first have to make something stick?  I don’t see they in any hurry.  Furthermore, it’s an illegal govt!

And last I checked, all dem bannas deh right in Guyana!

So guh back to the drawing board!

Baseman posted:

Doesn’t the PNC first have to make something stick?   I don’t see they in any hurry.  Furthermore, it’s an illegal govt!

In a sense, it has been illegal since May 2015 since the constitutional mandated recount was never conducted.

Prashad posted:

All Indians should leave Africa or risk being genocide.

If they are involved in corruption, they ought to be penalized. The government of South Africa functions by the rule of law.  If not guilty, why run away!

ronan posted:

Dave posted:

APNU+AFC is most corrupt Govt. in English speaking Caribbean – PPP

PPP Leader of the Opposition
[MASTER TIEFMAN] Bharrat Jagdeo

ahem

Wha happen you choke on you own vomit? pull your head out yuh kakahole and take the PNC shit from your eyes, PNC corruption is no different...

he photo showing Mr. Harmon on an executive jet in China, in the company of Baishanlin officials. Click here

While Trotman literally giving away known oil fields for 1% royalty and pickup all associated costs here, brazil is collecting billons from the same corporations for exploration here

sachin_05 posted:

ronan posted:

Dave posted:

APNU+AFC is most corrupt Govt. in English speaking Caribbean – PPP

PPP Leader of the Opposition
[MASTER TIEFMAN] Bharrat Jagdeo

ahem

Wha happen you choke on you own vomit? pull your head out yuh kakahole and take the PNC shit from your eyes, PNC corruption is no different...

he photo showing Mr. Harmon on an executive jet in China, in the company of Baishanlin officials. Click here

While Trotman literally giving away known oil fields for 1% royalty and pickup all associated costs here, brazil is collecting billons from the same corporations for exploration here

Nah shakeabatty batty shaking!

Baseman posted:

Prashad posted:

All Indians should leave Africa or risk being genocide.

If they are involved in corruption, they ought to be penalized. The government of South Africa functions by the rule of law.  If not guilty, why run away!

Everyone who acts in contravention to any law should be prosecuted and penalized. With all the moaning and groaning before 2015, one would have expected PPP officials to be lined up before the courts in droves. Yet, after 4 years, no one is. Even RK who they claim was Jagdeo's chief henchman is home drinking he beers.

Did Patterson returned the 9k yet and if so, did Gaskin put his head on that block?