Kaieteur News
PAGE 04
Saturday October 13, 2018
Kaieteur News Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana. Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: Adam Harris Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491. Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210
EDITORIAL
SOCU AND THE COURTS
I
n the last few months, the government through the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) has filed a number of cases involving fraud and the theft of state resources against individuals from the former government. Unfortunately, SOCU has lost most of its cases which suggests that either its lawyers are ill prepared to defend its cases or they are grossly incompetent. Last August, SOCU detained a Venezuelan registered Beech Baron Aircraft owned by Guyanese gold miner, Jerome Parkesas as part of its investigations into allegations of money laundering. As reported, during a search of the aircraft, SOCU officials confiscated more than 20 ounces of gold, 50,000 in Brazilian currency and G$1.2 million.But in a recent hearing of the case, the High Court ordered the release of aircraft and fined SOCU G$150000 in costs. Last year, SOCU filed 17 fraud charges against the former General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board, Jagnarine Singh, and his deputy, Madanlall Ramraj for failing to enter over $4.2 M into the company’s ledger, knowing that it was contrary to standard operation procedures. The incidents are said to have occurred between 2011 and 2012 at the company’s head office in Kingston, Georgetown. However, all the charges were dismissed due to the lack of evidence from SOCU prosecutors. Frustrated by the court’s decision, the head of SOCU, Sydney James blamed the dismissals on the breakdown in communication between the prosecutors and SOCU officials. The government has also lost another case against the former General Manager of the New Guyana Marketing Corporation, Nizam Hassan and his deputy, Felecia De SouzaMadramootoo on alleged fraud and conspiracy charges to procure money illegally. In November 2016, former Deputy Director of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), Carvil Duncan was found not guilty of the alleged theft of $984, 900 from GPL. The court ruled that a prima-facie case had not been established against him. And it seems that the government has aborted its efforts to return the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of GPL, Aerswar Deonarine who fled the country after being accused of fraudulently transferring $27 million to his personal bank accounts from the Petro-Caribe fund. The court also dismissed charges of fraud and misuse of public funds brought by the government against the former Minister of Public Service, Dr. Jennifer Westford and her personnel assistant, Margaret Cummings. According to the court, the cases were dismissed because they were “bad in law”which means that wrong charges were filed against Dr. Westford and Margaret Cummings. Based on the Auditor General’s report, it was alleged that between 2011 and 2015 by virtue of their employment at the Ministry of Public Service, the Minister and her assistant who had control of the accounts department, defrauded the government of $639,420,000. The government has appealed the case. These cases were put together by SOCU and the Criminal Investigation Department based on the advice of the Police Legal Adviser and the Director of Public Prosecutions.To date, SOCU has not won any of its cases, which has been very costly to the taxpayers. Many believe that SOCU lacks focus and that it is involved in too many investigations at a time. It is now involved in the Panama rice fiasco, while its probe into the $148 million Demerara Harbour Bridge consultancy contract is pending. The amount of resources spent on these cases could have been spent to improve the social services, including child care, health care and education. Failure to win cases in the courts means that it is time for the government to step-up and provide SOCU with more efficient investigators and lawyers to help it prosecute and win its cases. Its lack of success in court has cast doubts in the minds of many that the government would not be able to convict anyone in the former government for alleged illegal practices, corruption or their burgling of the country’s best ocean front lands which they occupied and purchased below the market value at the time.
Editor’s Note; If your sent letter was not published and you felt its contents were valid and devoid of libel or personal attacks, please contact us by phone or email.
Have we lost our sense of history? DEAR EDITOR, This week marks the 65th anniversary of the Suspension of the Waddington Constitution on 9th October, 1953. I saw no reference in the press to that historical fact. Perhaps, your paper can start a column called “Today in History”. But this omission brings to the fore a greater concern. Have we lost our collective sense of history? Are we paying adequate attention to the teaching of History in our schools and in our Teachers College and in our university? I can recall our failure in 2003 and in 2013 to mark 50 years and 60 years respectively of the introduction of ministerial government in our country. (And two of those six ministers are still alive today). In our attempts at nation-building, our young people need to be constantly educated about our glorious past, even within living memory, so as to be galvanized to the heights to be attained. I am also mindful of the important role of the study of History in education after recently acquiring three mighty tomes. I have completed “An Accidental Life” by the late Professor Harold Drayton, and “A Survey of Guyanese History” by Dr. Winston McGowan. I am now dipping into “A People’s Political History of Guyana 1838-1964" by Dr. Kimani S.K. Nehusi. We can speculate about what Guyana might have been if the Constitution was not suspended in 1953 and if the nationalist movement was not fractured in 1955. After 52 years of Independence from the colonial masters, the country has not developed to the desired level in spite of the fact that we have more natural resources than any other nation in our Caribbean Community. We still have to needlessly fight among ourselves for the spoils of office
after every change of government. We are constantly dissipating our energies in this battle to the detriment of the masses. We need to spend more time and money on development of ourselves and our communities as in the past years of the ‘self-help’ movement. Villagers need to clean up their surroundings: no litter, no bushes, fences mended and painted, drains and trenches cleaned and free from weeds. Councils in town and country must ensure that streets are without pot-holes and that parapets are trimmed and manicured all year long, as in the Garden City of Georgetown in days of yore. At the national level, policies and systems must be in place and effective, so as to make more real the words of our National Anthem, which says in the third stanza: “And ours is the glory their eyes did not see, /Our land of six peoples, united and free.” We must also prove that Rev. Hawley Bryant was right when in educating the next generation, we teach them, according to the fourth stanza of “The Song of Guyana’s Children”: “Thus to the land which to us God has given May our young lives bring a gift rich and rare Thus as we grow, may the worth of Guyana Shine with a glory beyond all compare.” The question must now be asked as to how many of our 100+ secondary schools (government and private) still teach History for CSEC examination since the number of candidates in Guyana for this subject is certainly under 1,000. It means that in time still fewer students will offer the subject at the tertiary level in order to return as teachers to renew and re-invigorate the school system. Perhaps, in another
generation, the subject will not be taught in secondary schools. Lest we forget, how many schools now offer French? Will History follow the same path towards elimination? And the study of History is not only for teaching. The skills learnt are also applicable to analysis of problems, to decision-making, and to general administration in public and in private entities. Therefore, the Ministry of Education, as well as the Department of Culture, Youth and Sports, has a role to play in keeping alive our sense of history on the occasion of events of local and national importance. These events will also include the more significant anniversaries (25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, 75th, 100th, 125th, 150th) of our schools and other institutions. We must not glibly claim that we are bringing up the next generation, or that the children are the future of the nation, or that we mould the nation. The people in a community need to be educated in the history of our educational institutions, so that they may more willingly contribute in cash or in kind or in labour to the welfare of their schools, and then to other local institutions like the Health Centres. And by the way, come January 2019, Guyana will be observing the centenary of the first Trade Union in the Englishspeaking Caribbean – the Guyana Labour Union. One would like to believe that the GLU, and the GTUC, and FITUG, and the relevant department at UG, and the major political parties, have already drawn up plans to hold exhibitions and symposia and parades in order to celebrate this unique historic occasion. After all, we have not lost our sense of history! Walter B. Alexander Retired Deputy Permanent Secretary.
There is a lot wrong at Stabroek Market Square DEAR EDITOR, Only recently l penned a letter about the vendors’ (mainly water, juice and drinks) plight and asked that some sort of leniency or agreement could be made with the vendors and the City Council. Not a word was uttered except about the skullduggery being committed by Royston and some council member. Services by the City police (market constables) continues to ‘shakedown’ the vendors daily. On Wednesday, the City police collected three vendors who were about to start plying their trade and handcuffed them. They then forced them to walk to Regent Street Constabulary office. According to one of the vendors, they told him they are arresting him for ‘obstruction of traffic’. I find it disgusting at the treatment against these people who are trying to make an honest living, and also amusing. One of the vendors plies his trade between the route 45 (Lamaha/Hospital) and 41 (Norton Street/South) and his cart would be stationed alongside the light post which
is not a hindrance to any traffic from any of the routes vehicles. Meanwhile all the routes have buses parking in all sort of manner causing traffic congestion all over. They cannot be dealt with. At the Constabulary, the three vendors where given a very meticulous search and the order to post an eight thousand dollars bail. At no time were any charge written out or were they asked to give any statement or told anything, except ordered to sign the bail receipt and told that they have to attend court on October 18. Immediately upon hearing this, I assumed some sort of dishonesty involved, because why would they assign a date so far away and not same/next or a closer date? I hope someone shows a little interest into this matter. Only recently the Chief Constable was blubbering about the glorious plans for the Stabroek area and instead I am seeing serious ‘shakedown’, and robberies being committed. Finally, I’ve always been supportive of utilising local products. This
particular season, there’s a wide variety of fruits available and through strong determination and creativity of many young people, all the fruits are being used to produce local fruit drinks. Some are even blended/mixed together and they even making lime juice (swank) and adding green coloring to it and selling. Admirably the various vendors could be seen with their white hats and clothes vending. They are worth praising because many people are supporting them, even tourists. I’ve had over eight juices for the week. They vary between the cherries, sorrel, guava and passion fruit. Take a walk at Stabroek Area, spend time and you will see drugs being used openly, touts cursing, tugging, pushing and abusing passengers, people being robbed in bright daylight and vendors crying because their honest hustle is too much for the City Constable, even though many of them are vendors for passage to go home when they finish working. Sahadeo Bates