During the recent NCN so-called \u201cdebates\u201d on corruption, the PPP representatives were most belligerent and bellicose in defence of their record.\u00a0 Minister Leslie Ramsammy, however, admitted that there are times when the system would lapse, but quickly emphasized that the Government has put a number of laws and regulations in place to reduce and eliminate these lapses.\u00a0 This, as the average Guyanese knows, is a most farcical statement, and if it wasn\u2019t so serious, most comical as well.<\/p>\n
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Just take the issue of corruption in the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), which coincidentally (or not) falls under the very Minister Ramsammy.\u00a0 Over two years ago, in mid-2009, Kaieteur News investigated the purchase of a home for G$60M that it was able to link to Lionel Wordsworth, the CEO of the NDIA.\u00a0 Initially, Wordsworth attempted to distance himself on the basis of his wife having used her maiden name to make the purchase.\u00a0 Kaieteur News then proved, via a letter from the Guyana Oil Company (GUYOIL), that Lionel\u2019s words were worthless.\u00a0 However, in keeping with what we have become accustomed to, and of course, in stark contrast to Minister Ramsammy\u2019s statement, the PPP did nothing, absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n
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Now fast forward to today.\u00a0 The internal auditors of the NDIA issued a damning report on system lapses and abuse that directly implicated none other than Wordsworth and the Senior Section Engineer (SSE).\u00a0 The report speaks of conflict of interest and sole sourcing of services such as the supply of fuel and the awarding of contracts to relations of senior NDIA operatives, in breach of national procurement procedures.\u00a0 It went on to say that fuel consumption and pump efficiency were inadequately monitored, which if properly done would have assisted in minimising risk exposures and losses.\u00a0 So much for Ramsammy\u2019s assertion the Government has systems in place to reduce corruption.<\/p>\n
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The report concluded that \u201cThese acts of sole sourcing were deliberate, fraudulent and in breach of the procurement act.\u201d\u00a0 It also stated, \u201cIt is audit\u2019s opinion that the SSE poorly performed his functions and unethically conspired with the CEO, committing acts of procurement fraud.\u201d\u00a0 The auditors, in their recommendation, submitted that both Wordsworth and the SSE be fired.\u00a0 \u201cthe CEO and SSE\u2019s services should be immediately terminated for committing the fraudulent acts and a full investigation of all awarded contracts for 2011 and 2012 be done\u2026The procurement functions performed by the CEO should be relinquished immediately to the Procurement Department for strict adherence with professional procurement guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n
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However, Minister Ramsammy took deep umbrage with the report\u2019s recommendation (saying it overstepped) and the fact the report was carbon copied to others, including the Regional Chairman and President, and eventually made it into the media.\u00a0 So, in true Jagdeo\/Ramotar PPP style, Ramsammy sent the head auditor on leave, thus shooting the messenger.\u00a0 Instead of thanking the auditor for bring to light fraudulent and corrupt activities, Ramsammy is trying to silence the auditor as much as to say, \u2018how dare you disclose thievery.\u2019<\/p>\n
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This tyranny of the PPP\/C government has reached an alarming level. Sending the NDIA auditor on leave for doing his job is the most recent example. Only an authoritarian regime would discipline an employee for revealing the truth. It reeks of bullyism and victimisation and is clearly designed to send a warning to all other employees who dare to speak out against government corruption and fraud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During the recent NCN so-called \u201cdebates\u201d on corruption, the PPP representatives were most belligerent and bellicose in defence of their record.\u00a0 Minister Leslie Ramsammy, however, admitted that there are times when the system would lapse, but quickly emphasized that the Government has put a number of laws and regulations in place to reduce and eliminate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pressreleases"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/image001-2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4F7T1-165","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afcguyana.com\/afcnew\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}