Rohee: President’s justification of Durban Park scandal a cover-up of horrendous proportions

General Secretary of the Peoples Progressive Party, Clement Rohee has chimed in on the latest scandal erupting from the incumbent administration.

Rohee during a presser at the party’s Freedom House today admonished President Granger’s defence that there was nothing criminal about the Durban Park project.

It was revealed in the National Assembly that a ‘special purpose’ private company was set up to solicit and receive funds for the project. What was not revealed was that a sitting Government Minister was assigned as a Director of the private company, in addition to information relating to the exact amount spent on the completion of the project.

See Rohee’s full statement below:

The People’s progressive Party (PPP) rejects the contention by President Granger to the effect that “there was nothing criminal about the Durban Park project.”

This specious justification advanced by the President in respect to this particular project is tantamount to a cover-up of horrendous proportions.  It is a national scandal beyond the imagination of any decent-minded citizen.

The Party notes that this is the umpteenth time the President has had to stick his neck out  in defence of his untamed and get-rich quick Ministers and government cronies who are developing a reputation for becoming involved in one scandal after other attracting as they go, national attention. The last scandal being the Norton Success Street Drugs Bond which the President had to condone especially since his Party Congress was bold enough to shun the national outcry condemning the subject Minister’s involvement in the scandal and for misleading the National Assembly.

A similar cover-up was demonstrated when Cabinet appointed a small committee comprising of Norton’s Cabinet colleagues to investigate one of their own; the outcome could not have been otherwise.

Dressing up a series of breaches of Section 16 of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act and Section 216 of the Constitution as an “unusual course of action” claiming that the “establishment of a company was expedient at the time” and is “not a secret one” are all excuses and justifications for a series of illegal acts to plunder the Force Account at the Ministry of Infrastructure.

Had it not been for a Motion by the Parliamentary Opposition on Private Members’ Day this relevation would have never seen the light of the day.

The establishment of a ghost company branded Homestretch Development Inc. (HDI) populated with persons close to government and a Cabinet Minister was never made public by the Granger administration until questions were asked in the National Assembly.

This brings into focus the transparency and accountability deficit of the APNU+AFC administration. Further, to this day, the population is not the wiser as regards the names of the private citizens who came forward “giving their time and resources”.

The government has failed to reveal to the National Assembly who are the “private citizens that came forward to “give their time and resources”.  This gives the lie about budgetary uncertainties. No one knows how much “time” and how much “resources” were given to this project.

The PPP notes that as usual, the Granger administration has fallen back on the thread worn excuse about what the PPP did while it was in government as a reason for its failure to be transparent and accountable now that it is in government.

Little does the APNU+AFC government realize that such specious arguments mean little or nothing to the people of Guyana. What the people would like to know is precisely the answers to the questions posed in the National Assembly by the PPP/C Members of Parliament.