Django posted:

Ramotar writes AG to defend Nandall’s use of public funds for personal benefit

May 20, 2016 Source

 

By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
Former President Donald Ramotar has admitted to Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, that he authorized former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, to utilize state funds fpr personal purposes.

This was revealed after Attorney General Basil Williams forwarded a case to Sharma for investigation.A few months ago, Williams asked the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary (PS), Indira Anandjit, to proceed on administrative leave to facilitate an audit into the disappearance of millions of dollars worth of law books and computer accessories.
Williams said that the Ministry only found out that the books were missing after the discovery by state auditors.

The Minister said that the missing Commonwealth Law Books are valued at almost $3M and the computer parts are estimated over $2M.
Williams told the media, “The PS authorized those purchases and the books cannot be found.”He had said that he was hoping for a “plausible explanation” as to where the items have disappeared to.Yesterday, Williams told the media that the Auditor General took a long time to respond to the Ministry. “In fact I had to inquire.”

He said that, eventually, Sharma reported that “in the case of the law books, the former President Ramotar wrote the Auditor General’s office, and stated that he and the then Attorney General had some sort of private agreement that the Attorney General would spend money from the votes of (money budgeted for) the Ministry of Legal Affairs to buy the law books and keep them for himself.”Williams said, “As I understand it, he (Ramotar) is saying that she (the PS) is not culpable or blameworthy, because he had an agreement with Nandlall – that Nandlall could use the Ministry’s money to buy these books and keep them for himself.”Williams said that he still cannot understand why a former President would write admitting that he was in breach of financial regulations.

The Attorney General said that Ramotar is probably depending on his presidential immunity for protection from being hauled before the courts. “But I say this… it is criminal.”Williams emphasised that he does not accept the excuse given by Sharma.“We do not accept that the former President could have an agreement with Nandlall to spend the state’s money for personal benefit. I do not know if being a former president he believes he has immunity.

“It is one of the strangest things you would find in any part of the world, that an agreement could be made between two government officials to spend taxpayers’ money for private purposes.”
In the interim, Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator, Melissa Tucker, continues to act as the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary.

 

So Ramotar basically said that it's OK for the AG to steal taxpayer dollars. These crooks have no blasted shame.

While the gov't. is agitating its supporters with all sorts of exaggerated and concocted stories of corruption the country is going downhill before our eyes.  We must not allow this country to be pushed down an abyss like what happened during the terrible years of Burnham. PNC supporters to hold their leaders accountable given their past records in gov't.

Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

While the gov't. is agitating its supporters with all sorts of exaggerated and concocted stories of corruption the country is going downhill before our eyes.  We must not allow this country to be pushed down an abyss like what happened during the terrible years of Burnham. PNC supporters to hold their leaders accountable given their past records in gov't.

This is what we talkin about, no comment?

"Former President Donald Ramotar has admitted to Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, that he authorized former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, to utilize state funds fpr personal purposes."

cain posted:

Billy Ram Balgobin posted:

While the gov't. is agitating its supporters with all sorts of exaggerated and concocted stories of corruption the country is going downhill before our eyes.  We must not allow this country to be pushed down an abyss like what happened during the terrible years of Burnham. PNC supporters to hold their leaders accountable given their past records in gov't.

This is what we talkin about, no comment?

"Former President Donald Ramotar has admitted to Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, that he authorized former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, to utilize state funds fpr personal purposes."

I read somewhere that the AG makes more than the Prime Minister. This all tax free. I think the former AG should repay the money for the law books for the subscription for all those years that the taxpayers picked up the tab.

Any such subscriptions paid by the govt should be housed in the AG chambers for all past and future AGs...its the property of the people.   

What other use would these books be to anyone other than in the execution of their duties as Attorney General? If that is the case, how is it for personal purposes? The Guyana government paid me a salary while I was studying and at no time did anyone say that taxpayers money was illegally used for my personal purpose. How is this different at the time this expense occurred?

I worked for a public institution that, as part of my employment contract, provided me with funds to purchase professional materials to keep, subscribe to professional journals that I had previously subscribed to, etc. Seems that this would be a problem in Guyana. No wonder they have so many problems with institutional effectiveness.