The old system leaked money

by adam harris

OCTOBER 25, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, MY COLUMN

It is amazing how the world of politics could get people to react in ways considered unimaginable. For one, there was a hue and cry about the increases that the government Ministers got. The people who were organizing the hostile reaction to the pay increase did not say that the same increases were awarded to the Members of Parliament in the Opposition benches. When that became known, the leaders in the People’s Progressive Party backpedalled a bit. There was some hemming and hawing about whether they would collect the pay increase. General Secretary Clement Rohee said that the party was still to make a decision. This initial answer surprised me because if the increases are bad then there should be no hesitation in deciding whether they would be accepted. He should right off the top answer with a resounding ‘No’. He then said that former President Bharrat Jagdeo, in his role of Opposition Leader would answer the question. On Monday, he said that Mr Jagdeo had answered the question by way of some out of the way electronic news source. Most of the reporters had never seen that outlet. I for one who don’t spend time looking for news sources certainly did not. In any case I did not even know the name of the news source. The PPP then issued a statement that the opposition members of Parliament would refuse the money. That sounded good to me. I knew that many of them needed the money because they needed to put food on their table and that the party could not support them. So I ignored the issue until I learnt that all of them had collected the increased sum. So the party had to come up with an explanation. We were told that the cheques were sent to the personal accounts of the Members of Parliament. I wondered about those who would have gone to the National Assembly to collect the money. If they were not going to collect the money then they should have ignored the cheque. I then heard that they were going to deduct what they would have received and either the rest to the Ministry of Finance or give the money to charity. Returning money to the Ministry of Finance is not as straightforward as returning goods to the store. There must be an account in which this money would be deposited unless someone wanted some clerk to get a lot of money every month. Since the people collected the money, not one has so far made any restitution. I am going to bet that the money is going to stay with the people who collected it. Then there is the talk about all the money that happened to be moved from one Government Ministry to agencies and departments. Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo recently spoke about $500 million that was transferred to National Communications Network and to the Government Information Agency. He said that while he found the transfer he could not find the recipient. He is concluding that the money might have disappeared into the hands of someone. An audit did find that people enjoyed the largesse of the government. For example, there was one person who used a car like his own. People went to the gas station to fill up every day. How could that be a reality? Almost a dozen cars were driven into the junk yard. Many of them were newer than the car I drive but they are of no use now. That is only part of the story. We hear that people with no cheque but with a voucher going to the Bank of Guyana and walking away with cash. So much for Cheddi Jagan’s lean and clean government. Mr Jagdeo accused the present government of embarrassing him. And indeed the revelations are embarrassing. How could this happen under his watch? So he said on Friday that the government is only seeking to embarrass his Ministers and that if there is one iota of proof then the government should proceed to jail them. At issue here was the fact that the Auditor General did not do his work to the best of his ability. It would seem that he feared his political masters so many of the irregularities now turning up were glossed over. And here I wonder at all these revelations. The government is conducting these audits that are uncovering many irregularities and the public wants to see results. Prior to the elections there were many exposes and the promise that the culprits would be jailed. Nearly six months after the polls and the change in government except for former Public Service Minister Dr Jennifer Westford, no other person appears to be close to being prosecuted. I attempted to do a calculation of the money that appeared to be removed from the public purse and I found that the money could have built at least three schools. Included in this is the money released for the purchase of pharmaceuticals. The audit has found the millions of dollars in pharmaceuticals are still to be delivered. I had intended to examine the morality of the Pradoville issue but I opted to hold back. I remember the rules that were applied to ordinary people. They could not own any property to qualify for state lands and they could not sell within 10 years. But then again, these were rules for the ordinary people.