Police vehicles auction racket…Matter being swept under the carpet

Two months after the Ministry of Home Affairs ordered an investigation into a racket involving the sale of police vehicles via auction, there appears to be another slap-on-the-wrist situation.

The employee at the centre of the racket is still on the job and there is no word yet on whether or not any disciplinary action will be taken.

Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee.

For one, the Ministry, which had issued a statement on the matter a week after this newspaper exposed the matter, is now silent, and repeated calls to Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee have gone unanswered.

The Home Affairs Ministry appears only to be concerned about the leakage of information in relation to the racket than investigating the scheme itself and dealing with the alleged players.

In a statement issued after this newspaper had exposed the racket, the Ministry said that it “views with deep concern the story published in the Kaieteur News on July 11, 2012 headlined: ‘Massive racket uncovered at Police Vehicles Auction’.”

The Ministry said that “it is appalled at the extent to which some ranks within the Guyana Police Force would go to sell information about the Force in exchange for money or to sell information about the said organization as a way of grinding an axe with their colleagues within the Force. By divulging this matter to the Kaieteur News only, those disloyal ranks within the Force make it appear as if the Kaieteur News is an anti-corruption tribune and a paragon of virtue in Guyana.”

However, since May this year, this newspaper had received word on the racket from a source outside of the official investigation, but delayed the publication until July, when it was in possession of information that substantiated the earlier reports received.

The racket, which involves the misrepresentation of amounts paid for the vehicles, with some of them being sold for far less than the minimum bidding price, has been going on for a long time, and apart from the Ministry official, the probe is also looking into involvement of the auctioneer, a Police staffer and an Auditor from the Audit Office.

Yesterday, a reliable source informed that the investigation has been completed and investigators are awaiting further advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

According to the Ministry, since April 2012, the Minister of Home Affairs had instructed his Permanent Secretary to initiate an investigation into the matter, based on reliable information which had come to the attention of the Minister’s Secretariat.

The Ministry said that since the instruction was issued, the Minister has, from time to time, requested to be updated on the status of the investigation. “Regrettably, nothing has been forthcoming.”

But the man who blew the whistle on the massive racket at the police vehicles auction said that it was Office of the President that initiated the investigation into the scheme and not the Ministry of Home Affairs.

He also claimed that it was the officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs who were dragging their feet on the issue and not the police’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), which was carrying out the investigation.

The whistleblower, a city businessman, told this newspaper that although he had warned those who were carrying on the racket that he would blow their cover, they persisted nevertheless.

He said that he had approached the Ministry of Home Affairs with a view to getting an audience with the Minister himself, to highlight the malpractices at the auction, but instead, he was given the “royal runaround” by the Minister’s Secretary.

Frustrated, he sought the intervention of the media, Kaieteur News in particular, to make the issue public.

In April, he had provided this newspaper with documentation that he had compiled about the fraudulent practices by those overseeing the auction and some participants. However, as mentioned earlier, the information was not immediately made public, since the authenticity of the information was being verified.

In the meantime, the frustrated whistleblower approached the Office of the President (OP) with his information and it was there that decisive action was taken.

“The Ministry did not initiate any investigation. Instead Home Affairs tried to cover it up. I went to OP where action was finally taken,” the whistleblower declared.
His claim can be substantiated, since, a few weeks after he had contacted Kaieteur News, police investigators did the same and requested copies of the documented information that the newspaper had received from the whistleblower.
In fact, the police had solicited other information that was at this publication’s disposal to facilitate their investigation.

“The police are not leaking any information to the Kaieteur News. I was the person who was in contact with the newspaper because I wanted to expose what was taking place. I personally gave Kaieteur News the information before the police investigation started. At least five persons gave statements in the matter,” the whistleblower had stated.

So far none of the vehicles in question has been recalled and many can be seen parked in several areas around the city.