The Peoples Progressive Party has responded in a strongly worded statement to the comments made by Public Security Minister, Khemraj Ramjattan.
Ramjattan purported in Kaieteur News that the Special Organised Crimes Unit (SOCU) has completed its investigation into the operations of the National Investment and Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL) and that “criminal charges will be brought against a number of officials including People’s Progressive Party (PPP/C) former Government Ministers, next week.”
See the party’s full response below:
We note once again, the reckless outburst of Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, published in the Kaieteur News front page dated 25-02-2017, alleging that former Ministers of the People’s Progressive Party Administration would be charged next week.
The nation is well aware that this is nothing new. But, we note the inconsistencies in the utterances emanating from the Government. The President is on record on numerous occasions saying that the forensic audits have not produced evidence upon which criminal charges can be instituted. Similarly, Khemraj Ramjattan, himself, has been quoted in the press only last month as saying that the forensic audits were merely a stock taking excise. Now, the nation is being fed a different story.
It is public knowledge that the Government is buckling under tremendous public pressure coming from numerous directions: Guysuco is collapsing; the parking meter fiasco is escalating; the economy continues to contract; cost of living continues to skyrocket; criminal activities continue unabated; all the productive sectors are in a state of chaos;
Mashramani was a total failure; the Durban park, drugs bond and the twenty (20) other scandals are still fresh in the people’s mind; the public outrage continues to mount against the two hundred (200) odd tax measures imposed on the backs of the Guyanese people, including, Vat on electricity, water, health and education services; political and racial discrimination continue to be institutionalised by and in Government.
The Government appears impotent to deal with unemployment and a lack of job creation opportunities; massive laying off of employees in the private sector at Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) and Barama as a result of the economic conditions further compound the situation.
Against this backdrop of economic chaos and social despair, public pressure upon the Government is at its highest.
Kaieteur News adds to this pressure by dragging outlandish and extravagant statements from Ministers of this Government.
The Government has buckled and has chosen Ramjattan as the instrument to distract attention from the massive difficulties facing the Guyanese people and the gross incompetence and inability of the Government to address them.
So, Ramjattan has been instructed to bring the wine and bread to the circus and Kaieteur News is the ready and willing amphitheater. It is all part of a political and propagandistic gimmick.
We note that these clumsy threats are coming from the Government, when it is not the function of the Government to institute criminal charges.
That is a function of the Director of Public Prosecution, an independent constitutional office.
If a Government cannot even understand its role and functions, how can it ever competently discharge them?
What they are supposed to do, they cannot do: that is to manage and grow the economy, create more jobs and make the lives of the Guyanese people better. They are doing exactly the opposite. Rather than admit to their incompetence, try to improve or seek help, they conceal their ineptitude by violating the Constitution and encroaching upon the constitutional mandate of other agencies.
It is clear therefore, that if ever these charges are brought, they will not be the product of professional investigation but the manifestation of political vendetta and witch-hunting.
We call upon Khemraj Ramjattan and the Alliance For Change (AFC) to answer to the allegations that millions of dollars of bribes are being paid for gun licences and tint permits.
Minister David Patterson, should come clean about the multi-billion dollar scandal at Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL) in relation to the meter contract and the millions of dollars that contractors claims are extracted from them as bribes for contracts which do not go to public tendering. Prime Minister,
Moses Nagamotoo, should explain how his son-in-law became involved in the privitasation of Skeldon Estate and explain the role that his son-in-law played in the purchase of the two planes acquired by the Guyana Defense Force (GDF).
We ask that those in charge in the administration of justice, organisations championing the cause of human rights and indeed, every law abiding citizen to note that the Government’s agenda has nothing to do with the rule of law, due process and justice.
Theirs is an agenda of revenge, political vindictiveness and vendetta. Along with cohorts like Clive Thomas of State Asset Recovery Unit (SARU), Ministers of this Government have repeatedly tried and convicted persons in the press. Persons charged may never get a fair trial.
Needless to say if and when the charges come, they will be strenuously defended.
People’s Progressive Party
