Dear Editor,
I find it disingenuous that Minister Robert Persaud, among others, keeps repeating an inaccuracy so frequently in the press. I know the people of Guyana once given the facts will not be hoodwinked by such twaddle.
In this regard, Minister Persaud was reported as saying by the KN that the defunct Guyana Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank (GAIBANK) was established to lend to the farming community of Guyana but the funds were misused, forcing the institution to close (‘$220M small farmers’ credit programme kick started’ KN, January 4).
In a previous reply to the DPS Admin, Ministry of Agriculture on this very inaccuracy, I stated, and it has not been refuted with evidence by anyone, that GAIBANK was not closed because funds were misused. Instead, and I quote from my letter in SN of December 22, 2009: “The ill-advised closure of GAIBANK was the sole responsibility of the PPP/C Government which failed to implement the recommendations of Mr S A Goolsarran, Auditor General of Guyana, in relation to foreign exchange losses that were Government liabilities and not GAIBANK liabilities. The Auditor General in his letters of 31-12-93 and 9-16-1994 supported his recommendations of dealing with the foreign exchange losses by invoking the Laws of Guyana, Section 50(2) of the Co-operative Financial Institutions Act, Chapter 75:01. Regrettably, the PPP/C Government ignored the professional advice of the Auditor General, which would have accurately reflected the profitability levels of GAIBANK that were in the hundreds of millions of dollars, after all other operating expenses were charged to the appropriate accounts.”
Noting that all audited GAIBANK reports were laid in Parliament every year from the time the bank was established in 1973 to at least 1993 when Minister Asgar Ally was the PPP/C Senior Minister of Finance and our current President Jagdeo was one of his advisors, and recognizing that no accusation of fraud or mismanagement was raised by the PPP or any other political party, it would indeed be efficacious if Minister Persaud could produce the evidence to support his claim of mismanagement and misused funds. Otherwise, Editor, and in the interest of all Guyanese, we need to stop this inaccuracy.
Yours faithfully,
C Kenrick Hunte
