STRAIGHT TALK
Let me be very clear, Minister Trotman and Minister Jordan are creatures of President David Granger. They cannot collect G$3,780,000,000 (Yes, nuff zeros! G$3.7 billion is the equivalent of US$18 million) from a private sector investor with a track record that is not perfect with respect to relations with third world governments and tries to hide it from the owners of the cash (the people). They work under instructions from the Ministry of the Presidency. PERIOD! So this is all President Granger.
So when Chris Ram demanded that Mr. Granger launch an investigation into the working of the Ministry of Natural Resources, I was not totally convinced in the adequacy of such a call because Trotman could never have acted on his own. But when we consider his boss, then the real question evolved – Will a man with little moral integrity, call the police on himself?
From day one, organizations like Transparency International and other civil society bodies have been cautioning Mr. Granger and his inner cabinet of five to put the systems in place to transparently account for the oil funds. We were promised a Sovereign Wealth Fund Act and a Petroleum Commission by this PNC dominated Granger regime months ago but it never came to fruition. Why? We are hearing the same old PNC excuse of passing the buck when their incompetence is exposed. But when one considers Granger’s PLAN BAHAMAS, it clearly does not see these oil funds as a means to empowering the Guyanese people but more as a vehicle designed to fill the private pocket of a few of the “top honchos” of the PNC.
Guyana has now been placed in a situation where the whole framework of good governance is in tatters under Mr. Granger, which directly undermines economic development. Unfortunately the direct outcome of such selfish politics on the part of Mr. Granger will adversely distort Guyana’s competitiveness internationally. Let us have no doubt about that.
What makes this taste and smells like corruption is the lies, the damn lies, and the secrets. EXXON should have known better and they should have publicly declared the payments of the funds when they happened. But upon deeper reflection, this cannot be EXXON’s fault since they are a private company that is primarily accountable to their shareholders. This is the PNC’s fault who should be accountable to the people; after all the people elected them. The mere fact that they have now belatedly confirmed this US$18 million State revenue smacks of financial malpractice.
What is so wrong with informing the Parliament about these funds and bringing a plan to the House to publicly declare how, when and what projects the money will be spent? It is utter poppycock to use national security as the reason for hiding this important development from the people. Guyana has international reserves of US$580 million that can easily pay any international bill for any legal action against Venezuela. It can also buy any warship for the GDF that Mr. Granger may be planning. So this lame excuse of national security is a non-starter from the PNC from day one.
In the 2015 campaign in his personal Manifesto message. Mr. Granger said that he will bring an end to “corruption in the law-enforcement and regulatory agencies…..” What a hypocrite! Today the nation knows who is the philosophic writer of the dastardly script, who is passing the instruction to conduct these corruption acts and therefore who is the owner of the corruption in Guyana in 2017. YES, he is a member of the PNC who claimed he was a PNC member when he was a serving army officer. That alone can tell about the integrity of the man, he exhibits attitudes that are duplicitous and shady.
As an example, Mr. Granger continues to conveniently ignore Article 216 of the Constitution, which legislates how all revenues must be handled. Article 216 says “ALL revenues and other moneys…” Yes ALL Mr. Granger, not SOME! So why was this money not recorded in the books of Guyana? But there is a method to the madness, there is a Granger plan for this money and it has nothing to do with the development of Guyana and everything to do with bamboozling the people with an elections slush fund.
That is why the inner cabal of Team Granger is operating as if this is not the people’s money but the funds of the PNC? Their mentors have attitudes like Yayah Jammeh, the corrupt former leader of Guinean and Idi Amin of Uganda who emptied the Central Bank to fund their political campaigns. What will prevent Team Granger from doing the same in 2020? The time is now for all Guyanese to be alert. Wake up Guyana, TIEFMAN in the yard!
Sase Singh, M.Sc. – Finance, ACCA