By AFC Region 6 Councillor Haseef Yusuf

AFC Councillor, Haseef Yusuf

Nothing that the Alliance For Change (AFC) does or will do in the future will ever surprise me again. There is a saying that you only know someone when you deal with him. If I had not dealt with certain executive members of the AFC, I would still be singing their praises.I knew from the inception that Nigel Hughes would rescind his resignation because in the end, when you are in the same boat, you will never want to part company with your compadres. The ‘top guns’ in the AFC need each other’s support badly. They complement each other’s corrupt practices, as they try to outsmart their members and supporters.
However, recently there was a desperate attempt to get rid of me by the National Executive Committee of the AFC since I am not part of the corrupt ‘jahaaji’ network. They sent a message with an AFC Region 6 Councillor that if I am not pleased with the current policies and actions of the party then I should resign from the party and as an AFC Councillor. I told that Councillor in no uncertain terms that if the AFC is not pleased with my stance against cronyism and corruption and my promotion of national development, then they should expel me and furthermore, it is the corrupt ones within the AFC who should resign!

Ironically, it was the same Councillor who submitted exhaustive evidence of cronyism and corruption against an AFC MP at an inquiry, who claimed that he spent in excess of $4.5M on ‘bigan’ and ‘curass’. That was a ‘whitewash inquiry’ and even the Chairman of that inquiry, the then General Secretary Mr Sextus Edwards, was not aware of the press release which concluded that the entire episode was one of ‘misunderstanding and miscommunication.’ You cannot go against your own kind!
Subsequently, there was numerous evidence of corruption but I no longer have the resolve to bring it up. It was simply a case of you cannot fight the Devil’s case in Hell!

I will just itemize a few instances:

- Certain top members of the AFC will go abroad (Canada, USA) and members in the diaspora will hold fund- raisers and give monies collected to these members who will not submit the same in its entirety since proper accounting records are not kept. I was utterly shocked when the unaudited financial statement for 2012 showed that in one year the AFC only collected $22,087,500 from its chapters in the UK, Canada, USA, etc. During the 2011 campaign alone; one of the chapters in Canada sent $55,000 Canadian or $11,000,000 (Guyana dollars). I have evidence of this.

- Certain top AFC members will collect donations and not make any recordings in any receipt book or any document whatever.

- Monies are being spent with no proper bills or vouchers;

- positions are given to cronies and those who donate a lot.

- I saw a top AFC member collect monies and issue a receipt but on looking closer I saw that there was no carbon sheet, hence no duplication made. How was the balancing done?

- Everything was donated for a fund-raiser in Berbice and it made a loss!

- On Election Day 2011, food and drinks were diverted to some AFC members’ homes for their private use while some AFC polling agents went hungry;

- During the 2012 AFC convention, a motion was passed for AFC groups to bank all monies collected in a party account, this was never done. In fact, it was I who raised that motion which was unanimously passed. So much for accountability!

- During the 2011 elections there were three factions in Berbice and all were accusing each other about theft, mismanagement and corruption, but no investigation was done. The leaders of the AFC cannot afford to ‘rock the boat.’

- During the AFC 2012 convention, members were specifically instructed not to vote for the former General Secretary but to vote in favour of David Patterson. This also happened in the case of Moses Nagamootoo and Mrs. Punalall.

- Article 15(9) of the AFC Constitution stated that the National Executive Committee shall appoint an auditor annually yet the AFC presented an unaudited and inaccurate financial statement at the AFC 2012 Convention. There is no shortage of accountants and auditors within the AFC, so why no audited accounts?

- The financial statement which ended on February 2012 showed a surplus of $464,643 yet members were told after the 2011 Elections that the AFC owed Mrs Cathy Hughes a sum in excess of $ 7,000,000 and that the AFC MPs will have to make contributions towards offsetting that liability. How can there be a surplus when monies are owed? In other words, there were no bills to support the spending of $ 7 million! The financial statement did not speak of any liability! Here is a party that is preaching accountability but is utterly devoid of that concept in its internal dealings.

Is this the party that wants to run this country? It seems as if the worst from the PNC and PPP formed the AFC; not the best as I had believed! Mr Ramjattan himself told me that if the AFC had won the elections, there would have been ‘murderation’ among members for positions. But it would have also been ‘murderation’ to fill their pockets! Imagine all the political blackmail that is going on now with the intention to fill some of the AFC’s ‘fat cats’ pockets! Come on Ramjattan, make the ‘right turn’ or resign! You cannot allow your ‘boys’ to continue their corrupt tendencies! But then can you afford “to rock the boat”?
Is it wrong for me to speak out about the very things the AFC is preaching in public about? Should I keep my mouth shut, turn a blind eye and pretend that all is well within my party?
I believe in what the Great Mahatma preached- do not be afraid to speak out against corruption even if you are alone. History will judge and absolve me for speaking out against cronyism and corruption within my party. I will have to clean my house before I clean my neighbour’s. Let us remove the ‘beam’ from our own eyes then we can see to remove the ‘speck’ from our brother’s.