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June 6 ,2021

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Dear Editor,

The news came via technology, and it was startling.  Two senior employees of the Guyana Gold Board were terminated.  Given the two officers dismissed, and my own familiarity with both, I wonder what could have been the problem with them that was so grave as to merit dismissal.  More importantly, I will now tender something that Guyana’s head of state had asked for, which is evidence of racial discrimination.

By way of background, I have known Mr. Thomas Nestor, one of the fired workers, for several decades.  As for Mr. Hilbert Knight, I have had association with for approximately four years only.  I will be unequivocal about something regarding the two of them: there are very few Guyanese elected or selected in this country’s cadre of officials and professionals, who can compare to them where honesty and integrity are concerned.  By this I mean leadership ranks, ministerial cohort, other politicians and senior bureaucrats.  Further, they conduct themselves in a professional manner, and know their jobs inside out.

Mr. Nestor served for years in the Audit Office, and rose to a very senior level.  As an auditor, he can be dogged, which is very desirable; as a communicator, he tends towards the dogmatic, which can be problematic for some.  In fact, his body of work at the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) was consistently solid to outstanding, and dependable, of which more cannot be asked form an auditor in such a sensitive entity; he put in structure and process.  Truth be told, this was not the case for donkey years at the GGB, where my sense was that auditor was everybody’s buddy, and the dismal lack of discovery confirmed this incestuous friendliness.  Perhaps, Mr. Nestor’s removal is to clear the way to return to the good old days of all is well.  That is one of the reasons why I am so skeptical of any revealing audit concerns on COVID-19 cash and other big-ticket spending.

Similarly, Mr. Knight did his job well, honourably, and professionally.  I can so attest; anyone who desires to challenge me, go ahead! Make my day.  This was a public servant, who led by example in what is a tempting and corrupting operational environment.  Now I will take some stubborn stances, which come from in-depth knowledge of the professional comportment of these two fine officers.  First, they weren’t fired for not performing (incompetence) the requirements of their respective jobs.  Second, dishonesty is out.  Third, that means corrupt practices were nonexistent.  Fourth, I do not recall, would not think, that either has insulted or embarrassed a ruling political figure.  That is my portfolio, which many look to me to deliver.  To these I say: do own heavy lifting.

I conclude, therefore, that since the dismissals of Messrs. Nestor and Knight could not be based on incompetence, insubordination, political disrespect, predations, lack of ethics and integrity, then there can be one and only reason for their summary terminations: the color of their skin.  Here is another: because of the color of their skin, there is automatic association with an opposing political persuasion. In Guyana, that is now the kiss of professional death.  As an aside, it is cruelly ironic that these professional and performing Black Guyanese public servants-clean and honourable ones-were sent packing; but, on the other hand, there is the remarkable development of a former officer of the Gold Board slapped with dozens of pending fraud charges, who has been quietly reemployed at another state agency.  Guess the colour of that one’s skin….

President Irfaan Ali had asked for evidence of racial discrimination before, I humbly bring it before him, in the heads of Thomas Nestor and Hilbert Knight.  For whom the bell tolls next?  Guyanese have a saying: moon ah run til day ketch am.  We will pay costly prices for the blatant discriminations that now run rampant in this country, compliments of leadership machinations, in treasure and temper.

Sincerely,

GHK Lall

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I think the PPP members who are awed by Jagde Unscrupulous are.suffering from.the old inferiority complex Guyanese have for one who has had a foreign education! From.as far as Moss-cow, eh?.Bai yuh.mus be.sumfin!

What if they knew.he.was only faking it?

FM

Well, he gave Guyana's treacherous Ambassador to India enough money to, at least, enquire about buying gold, perhaps he's thinking of having.the.'right' people installed for his next venture! A big daring.one which would allow him to teef billions and escape to places that would protect him from extradition! For a small cut, of course! De maan gat foursite! E nat lyke dem ahmuhchure PNC teefs! Dem onlee gat wan site - teef naow befo wee get tro owt!

FM
@Mitwah posted:

So you condone the racist firings?

Prash is only trying to find work for unemployed PNCites! Haow dah rayssist rass? Iz whoo yuh gun putt twoo buckmaan dem?

FM
Last edited by Former Member
@Former Member posted:

Prash is only trying to find work for unemployed PNCites! Haow dah rayssist rass? Iz whoo yuh gun putt twoo buckmaan dem?

Why not?

Presently, an Engineer is the Minister of Home Affairs  and an ugly pastor as the Minister of Works and Infrastructure destroying the mangroves. So is wuh happen wid puttin twoo buckman?

Mitwah
@Mitwah posted:

Why not?

Presently, an Engineer is the Minister of Home Affairs  and an ugly pastor as the Minister of Works and Infrastructure destroying the mangroves. So is wuh happen wid puttin twoo buckman?

De buckmaan nuh lyk.PNC! Iz wy yu tink de Ministur iz uglee? Yuh doan't lyke tuh luk at pigz? Pigz is beyootiful rowstid! Axe enny Chynnamaan!

FM
Last edited by Former Member

Two cases outlined do not pass muster

June 9 ,2021

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Dear Editor,

I had a chance to examine the ‘evidence of racial discrimination in government hiring practices’ as presented by GHK Lall in a letter in Stabroek News `There could only be one reason behind the dismissal of these two senior Gold Board employees’ (June 6th, 2021) and have found that of the two cases outlined do not pass muster. One person is seventy-three years old and I would rather not discuss his present performance and attributes so as not to disparage a man at the end of his working life, the second mounted a political platform and campaigned for a political party during the last election in direct contravention of his contractual obligations. There is no evidence here of anything other than desperation and political mischief on GHK Lall’s part. The question then arose of GHK Lall’s motivation; why would Lall clutch at straws and label it ‘evidence’ of racial discrimination?

Is it that GHK knows that when the workings of the Gold Board are examined, real evidence of his (Lall’s) poor decisions will be laid bare? During GHK’s tenure as Chairman of the Gold Board his direct responsibility was to assess the world gold market and (if necessary) sell portions of Guyana’s gold reserves to a maximum benefit of her people. GHK Lall’s large-scale sell-off of Guyana’s gold reserves for a USD 1150- 1363 per ounce was foolhardy and premature; today’s Gold price is USD 1899.50 per ounce. GHK Lall advised on the sale of over two and a half million ounces of Gold that would be worth USD 536.50 more than the peak price received, a loss to our nation totaling well over USD 1.3 Billion; this occurred at a time when there was no need for hard currency as our reserves stood at over USD 500 Million.

Faithfully,

Robin Singh

Django

Massive losses were being sat upon by the then PPP administration

June 10 ,2021

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Dear Editor,

I refer to the letter titled, `Two cases outlined do not pass muster’ (SN June 9).  Since my longstanding practice is to glance at most articles and go my way, this one almost passed me by.  Now I must make an exception to my hard rule of not responding to, or engaging with, what is considered to be not meriting the dignity of a comment, even a read.

The writer took the issue that I raised about Messrs. Thomas Nestor and Hilbert Knight, the two inexplicably terminated senior black employees of the Guyana Gold Board (GGB) and somehow ended up in the realm of my tenure as chair of said GGB, and what was done and should not have been done under my watch.  I am still at a loss at how the issue, as I tabled it, of evidentiary racial discrimination in these jarring firings have any relation to my record, or lack of one, at the GGB.  What is the nexus?  What is it that shapes such thinking?  I used to be astonished at such antics before; but for a long while now, I recognize them for what they are: red herrings intended to distract from the issue at hand.  What used to lead to distaste, now merely triggers humour.  But I still have to ask: do some of our public commentators (a euphemism) have no moral, ethical, or intellectual bedrock from which they operate?  I find this most regrettable, and it is even more regrettable that these shallow subterfuges must be corrected, no matter how repugnant the task may be.

Editor, for the record, I have been away from the GGB close to a year and a half now.  When that is added to what took place in the early stages of my 3-year stint at GGB, it certainly took an inordinately long time for the PPP to find some kind of “horse as an ambassador for an ass” (Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost).  That is, drum up what is patently dumb and dumber.  Whether bauxite or timber or other precious products and commodities, a poor Third World society, always in need of scarce foreign exchange does not hold on forever to its production.  This is what was done with the same gold that the writer now conveniently rediscovers and represents to be lost opportunity. The reality is that massive losses were being sat upon (in a costly losing gamble) by the then PPP administration, with enormous double-digit billions on overdraft at the Central Bank, and for which frequent ‘dunning’ inquiries were the order of the day.  Indeed, it was nearly the same multibillion-dollar story at the Ministry of Finance, where similar deficits existed.

It took the PPP brain trust approximately over four years to come to the hindsight of what shoulda, coulda been. Like so many others chasing fool’s gold, the party’s leading lights were gambling on an ever-rising gold market, and when that collapsed, the bag was left for others to carry. Honest, dogged others.  Guess who?  Now, several years later, there is this perfect 2020 vision of what should have been done, and with what result.  Whether that is so or not is open to endless back and forth, of which I will have none. Never-theless, the original issue still remains unaddressed: how does racially charged firings of dutiful and honest Guyanese relate to my leadership and world market prices, and their possibilities?  Instead of a robust defense, there is only the delicately filigreed syntax and offerings of underlings seeking to protect overlords, through dodgy dissemblings.

Sincerely,

GHK Lall

Django

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