Year in review 2014

September

CANU detains businessman in connection with narco submarine

Drug Lords & Narco

Operation In Guyana.....

No one Charged....

Swept under the Carpet

Drug agents from the Customs Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) detained a popular Waini River businessman as they intensified their probe into the discovery of a semi-submersible vessel in the Guyana jungle.

CANU agents detained a popular Waini River businessman when this semi-submersible vessel was discovered in the jungle.

The man, who operates a large grocery and general store in the Waini River area, was removed from his home by CANU agents before being transported to the city for questioning.

The local drug agents were hoping that the businessman would be able to provide them with information about the owners of the vessel, which they believe is linked to the illegal drugs trade.

Remigrants ask Court to order GRA return detained SUVs

GRA quietly back down & Setteled

Three days after their two Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) were detained by the Guyana Revenue Authority, a remigrant couple has moved to the Court to have them returned. The constitutional action filed by lawyers for Narootandeo and Gharbassi Brijnanan asked for court orders to be granted, and directed to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), quashing the decision over the weekend  to detain two Lexus LX 570 motor vehicles, registration numbers, PRR 8398 and PRR 8399.

The two Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs)

that were detained by the Guyana Revenue Authority.

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According to the Brijnanans, both vehicles were imported by them after their application for remigration status was approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 3rd July, 2013, and tax exemptions granted by GRA via a letter dated 8th July, 2013.

The court action said that the grounds of the seizures were “arbitrary”, “unreasonable”, in breach of their legitimate expectations and of the provisions of the Customs Act, and was unlawful.

The Brijnanans are being represented by attorneys-at-law Robin Hunte, Ganesh Hira and Manoj Narayan. In their claims, the couple said they have homes in Number 61 Village, Berbice, and at Continental Park, East Bank Demerara, and that they were United States residents since 1997, acquiring citizenship in 2003.

Marriott Hotel’s private investors ‘yet to put a dollar’ –

Brassington still seeking partners  – Source

Jagdeo Mystry Chinese Partner...

The Georgetown Marriott Hotel is being constructed in Kingston, Georgetown and as of September the only official source of funding was the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL).

Marriott Hotel’s private investors are ‘yet to put a dollar’.

This publication was told that despite an announcement by Atlantic Hotel Inc (AHI), its owners, the project was yet to receive the funding from its private investors, US$8M or the Republic Bank syndicated loan of US$27M.

Kaieteur News learnt that Ace Square Investments was yet to put in a single dollar, while AHI’s Winston Brassington was busy running around trying to borrow a huge sum from a Trinidad bank to help pay off the contractor who built the hotel with purely Chinese labour.

This publication confirmed that Brassington was in China seeking new investors

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US$18M Specialty Hospital sinks in deeper trouble…

Govt. moves to terminate Surendra’s contract –

cites fraud, non-performance

Jagdeo Indian Partner

Turns out to be a Fake

like De Doctor Degree them give him...

AFC warned them about this Crook

More than two years after controversially awarding a US$18.1M ($3.7B) contract to an Indian firm to build a specialty hospital at Turkeyen, Government announced that it was moving to scrap the deal for fraud and non-performance.

The announcement came days after reports that one senior official of Surendra Engineering Company Limited (SECL) had skipped the country following a court judgment in favour of a prominent contractor which did works on the East Coast Demerara project site, but was not paid.

After building US$12.8M Enmore Packaging Plant, the former administration under President Bharrat Jagdeo then turned around and granted a US$4M contract to the Indian firm to supply 14 pumps to help reduce flooding on the coastland.

Diligent checks found that the company had no history in pumps. That contract was still mired in problems as Government was unable to say where the pumps were and whether Surendra actually supplied all of them. The answers were sketchy at best.

Regarding the specialty hospital contract, which was award in August 2012, the Government of Guyana “Press Statement” said that SECL was written to, and  “deep concerns” about the execution of the project’s design and construction were expressed. Government admitted that all was not well with the performance targets it set for Surendra and monies it had advanced.

Umana Yana destroyed by fire

MYSTRY.....

A significant part of the country’s history went up in flames after a fire, believed to be of electrical origin, completely destroyed the Umana Yana at Main Street, Kingston.

The Umana Yana was the largest structure of its kind in Guyana.

Officer in Charge of Operations at the Guyana Fire Service, Compton Sparman, told media operatives that fire crews and four tenders got to the scene within minutes, but were unable to save the structure.

“There is nothing else in there that could have started a fire, it can only be electrical, there was no cooking, no human activities going around to start a fire and fires don’t just happen, they are caused.”

No one was in the building at the time of the blaze, but a security guard who was on duty was rushed to the hospital with minor injuries. The Umana Yana stood 55 feet (16.78 metres) high and was made from thatched allibanna and manicole palm leaves, and wallaba posts lashed together with mukru, turu and nibbi vines. No nails were used.

Fashioned like the Wai-Wai benabs or shelters which are found deep in Guyana’s interior, it occupied an area of 460 square metres, which made it the largest structure of its kind in Guyana.

It was specially constructed to serve as a V.I.P. lounge and recreation spot during the Non-Aligned Foreign Ministers Conference held in Georgetown in August 1972.

OP now probing Surendra over US$4M pumps  –

injunction bars Guyana from releasing outstanding monies

Jagdeo Indian Partner

Turns out to be a Fake

like De Doctor Degree them give him...

AFC warned them about this Crook

Surendra Engineering Company Limited (SECL), the Indian firm accused of submitting a fake bank guarantee to Government for the Turkeyen specialty hospital, headed for even more trouble in September.

Not only did Government move to terminate that US$18M contract, filing a court case and involving the police, but an active assessment was also conducted into another controversial deal involving the supply of 14 drainage pumps to the tune of US$4M.

That contract was awarded in 2011, shortly before former President Bharrat Jagdeo ended his second term.

Minister of Legal Affairs, Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, said that both the Ministry of Agriculture and the Office of the President were reviewing the pump contract, with Government not “oblivious” to the fact that there is another deal.

However, the official declined to go into details, saying it was too early.

‘Illegally’ spent $4.5B by Finance Minister “not a police matter”

PPP wrong & Strong

Almost two months after the Leader of the Alliance for Change, (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan, filed a complaint against the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, over alleged illegal expenditure in excess of $4.5B, the Guyana Police Force said that it did not find that the Minister committed a crime and legal advice is being sought. The Force, by way of a statement, said it is obligated to investigate criminal breaches only and does not conduct investigations into civil breaches or administrative breaches of the law, save and except those related to the Police (Discipline) Act Chapter 17:01 regarding the conduct of its ranks.

Jagdeo/Sattaur plot to destroy Kaieteur News unearthed

Caught Redhanded.....

Publisher of the Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall, was provided with incontrovertible evidence of a plot by former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, and Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Khurshid Sattaur, to bring down Kaieteur News. Confidential documentation, leaked to the publication, revealed that the Commissioner-General provided the former President with detailed tax information of a number of independent media houses in Guyana.

Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur

The disclosure of the information by GRA’s Commissioner-General to Jagdeo, represented a grave breach of the ‘Oath of Secrecy’ sworn to by Sattaur as an officer of the Guyana Revenue Authority, one lawyer said.

In taking the Oath, Sattaur solemnly declared that he would “truly, faithfully, impartially and honestly execute the powers vested in him.”

He also swore that he would “judge and determine upon all matters and things before him without fear, affection, or malice”.

And he swore, too, not to disclose any tax information concerning any taxpayer, but this has not been the case

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Sattaur addresses issue of plot to destroy Kaieteur News …

newspaper provides the evidence

What will happen after May 11th....

Kaieteur News reported on what it said was a plot by Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority, Khurshid Sattaur, and former President Bharrat Jagdeo, to destroy the newspaper.

The news report prompted the following response from Sattaur. “Dear Editor, Reference is made to various articles in Kaieteur newspaper edition of 21/9 of which you are well undoubtedly aware.

There would appear to be a deliberate and orchestrated effort on the part of the paper and no doubt that of the owner/publisher of the newspaper to give maximum coverage to the ongoing legal proceedings involving the vehicles imported by remigrants but “loaned to the Lalls”.

This can be construed as an apparent and continuing effort to influence the learned Chief Justice in his impending decision.

This belief is further confirmed from the most naive reference made by the editor of the publication that “this matter is before the court and I am sure it will go nowhere”.

Perhaps the editor of Kaieteur News can enlighten the public what is meant by this statement and if he is privy to information that is not in the public domain.

The GRA is still of the firm belief that the matter will be heard and determined expeditiously and justice will prevail. While this reference to a current court case and these unjustified and baseless statements may appear to the uninitiated to be innocuous, Mr. Harris should be seriously reprimanded by the Chief Justice for contempt.

The statement that “nothing in the law that says a man cannot loan his vehicle” betrays the ignorance, misapprehension, misinterpretation of the law or represents a deliberate attempt by the publication to disseminate this misinformation to the reading public.”

Man’s head found in plastic bag a few yards from body

PPP still maintain Guyana Safe

Workers attached to the Ministry Public Workers made a shocking discovery while clearing out a cemetery at Cummings Lodge, East Coast Demerara.

Hidden in a clump of bushes was the badly decomposed body of a man. The particular area where the body was found is very desolate. A few yards away a human skull and a pair of blood-stained shoelaces were found in a black plastic bag.

There was also some “heavy duty” tape wrapped around the bag.

Several other bones which appeared to be human where scattered around the scene because dogs had begun to devour the remains.

Police sources said that plastic handcuffs along with a car mat were found in the bushes close to the body.

Sattaur moves to silence Kaieteur News…sues for $500M

First Brassington  now Sattaur....

PPP trying to

Muzzle Kaiteur News

While criminal charges were promised, Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has filed a lawsuit against the Kaieteur News, its Publisher Glenn Lall and Editor-in-Chief Adam Harris, seeking in excess of $500M as well as an injunction preventing the publication from repeating a number of allegations against Sattaur.

Sattaur successfully secured an interim injunction against Kaieteur News, by way of Justice Sandra Kurtzious, from circulating or causing to be published any libelous statements against him.

In the court documents filed by Sattaur, it was claimed that Kaieteur News had libeled him on no less than nine times in recent weeks, dating back as far as August 31.

Sattaur’s writ was filed by his attorneys R. Satram, CV Satram and Mahendra Satram.

May 12

You are the boss so we have to respect your decision.

 Please consider shortening his timeout.

You are the boss so we have to respect your decision.

 Please consider shortening his timeout.

May 12

I hope not. You let the rev post with his 64 color crayola pack well used and his cartoon communication strategy  maximized so Jalil should not have to wait until then. 

May 12